Summary of the ACAT Round Table Discussion: Open-source, knowledge sharing and scientific collaboration

TL;DR

This paper summarizes a lively ACAT round table discussion on open-source scientific software, emphasizing licensing, attribution, and user respect, and highlights the need for similar discussions on data sharing.

Contribution

It provides an overview of diverse opinions on software sharing in high energy physics and advocates for future discussions on data sharing issues.

Findings

Consensus on importance of licensing models

Agreement on recognition and attribution of software

Recognition of user respect for licensing conditions

Abstract

Round table discussions are in the tradition of ACAT. This year's plenary round table discussion was devoted to questions related to the use of scientific software in High Energy Physics and beyond. The 90 minutes of discussion were lively, and quite a lot of diverse opinions were spelled out. Although the discussion was, in part, controversial, the participants agreed unanimously on several basic issues in software sharing: (i) The importance of having various licensing models in academic research; (ii) The basic value of proper recognition and attribution of intellectual property, including scientific software; (iii) The user respect for the conditions of use, including licence statements, as formulated by the author. The need of a similar discussion on the issues of data sharing was emphasized and it was recommended to cover this subject at the conference round table discussion of next ACAT. In this contribution, we summarise selected topics that were covered in the introductory talks and in the following discussion.