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Software Attributioncan we improve the reusability and sustainability of scientific software?
http://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.942289
NSF SI2 PIs Meeting, 24-25 February 2014Neil Chue Hong (@npch), Software Sustainability InstituteORCID: 0000-0002-8876-7606 | [email protected]
Unless otherwise indicatedslides licensed under
Supported by Project funding from
Software Sustainability Institute
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The Research Cycle
Create
Test
Interpret
PublishRevise Paper
Data
Software
Research Outputs Research is a continuous cycle.
When we publish we are contributing to the body of knowledge.
http://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.942289
Software Sustainability Institute
www.software.ac.uk
Research/Reuse/Reward Cycle
Index
Identify
CiteRewardCreate
Test
Interpret
PublishRevise
Research Reuse Reuse is also a cycle. We build our research on the work of others.
Reward mechanisms should encourage reuse.
http://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.942289
Software Sustainability Institute
www.software.ac.uk
The current process
Startresearch
Writesoftware
Usesoftware
Produceresults
Publishresearch
paper
Releasedata
Releasesoftware
Which mentions software and data
This process is simple but does not reward production orreuse of good software and data.
It also has a long contribution cycle.
http://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.942289
Software Sustainability Institute
www.software.ac.uk
Writesoftware
A better process?
Startresearch
Identifyexisting
software
Usesoftware
Produceresults
Publishresearch
paper
Adapt/extend
software
Releasedata
Releasesoftware
Publishsoftware
paper Publishdata
paper
Which references
softw
are and data papers
Software and data papers are needed as proxies for rewarding reuse.
But it enables a shorter contribution cycle for data and software.
http://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.942289
Software Sustainability Institute
www.software.ac.uk
What do we choose to identify:- Workflow?- Software that runs workflow?- Software referenced by workflow?- Software dependencies? What’s the minimum citable part?
Boundary
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Algorithm
Function
Prog
ram
Library / Suite / Package
…
Granularity
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Versioning
Personalv1
Personal v2
Personalv3
Personal v2a
Public v1
Personal v3a
Personal v2a
Public v2
Public v3
Why do we version?- To indicate a change- To allow sharing- To confer special status
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AuthorshipAuthorship• Which authors have had what impact on each version of the software?• Who had the largest contribution to the scientific results in a paper?
http://beyond-impact.org/?p=175
OGSA-DAI projects statistics from Ohloh
Software Sustainability Institute
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Software Journals
http://openresearchsoftware.metajnl.com
http://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.942289
Software Sustainability Institute
www.software.ac.uk
Peer review of software?
• Can the aspects of peer review be decoupled? Novelty and acceptability Validity and quality
• Accurate metadata helps sustainability But excessive metadata requirements are a barrier
• Essentially, for reuse and sustainability Where is it? Who wrote it? How do I run it? How do I find out more?
• Software Papers: Improving the reusability and sustainability of scientific software http://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.795303
http://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.942289
Software Sustainability Institute
www.software.ac.uk
JORS software metapaper
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ReferencesReuse
ScreenshotsIntroduction
Implementation + Usage
Anatomy of a
software meta-paper
Metadata
Metadata
QualityControl
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F1000Research Web Tool
Other journals you can publish software in:http://bit.ly/softwarejournals
Software Sustainability Institute
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Code as a Research Object
• What if you could assign DOIs to code easily?
• Could we make software more reusable?• http://mozillascience.org/code-as-a-research-object-a-new-project/• https://github.com/mozillascience/code-research-object
http://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.942289
Software Sustainability Institute
www.software.ac.uk
Alternative Metrics
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I can get credit for everything
Automatically generated from GitHub Repository
Starring as a means of recommendation
Forking analogous to citing for software
… but not necessarily rewardhttp://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.942289
Software Sustainability Institute
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Career Paths in UKCareers outside academic sector
Non-universityResearch (industry,government etc.)
ProfessorPermanentResearch Staff
Early CareerResearch
PhD
stud
ents
Source: The Scientific Century, Royal Society, 2010 (revised to reflect first stage clarification from “What Do PhD’s Do?” study)
UK STEM graduate
career paths
Software Sustainability Institute
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Where we are now
• We must describe and cite software otherwise we cannot benefit from and reward reuse and refinement Software papers are a citation mechanism that
works with existing infrastructure and norms Direct citation of code + metadata might be better
• But we still need to fix the reward mechanism for non-traditional research outputs And this is entirely in our hands as scientists
http://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.942289
Software Sustainability Institute
www.software.ac.uk
Further Information
• Software Papers: Improving the reusability and sustainability of scientific software http://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.795303
• Journals in which you can publish software: http://bit.ly/softwarejournals
• Journal of Open Research Software http://openresearchsoftware.metajnl.com/
• Discussion: what is the minimum metadata required to describe a code object for scientific reuse? https://github.com/mozillascience/code-research-object/issues
• Contribute: Code as a research object: https://github.com/mozillascience/code-research-object
• The DOI for this presentation: 10.6084/m9.figshare.942289• The Software Sustainabilty Institute is a collaboration between universities of Edinburgh, Manchester, Oxford and
Southampton. Supported by EPSRC Grant EP/H043160/1.