Software metadata: How much is enough?

TL;DR

This paper discusses the importance of capturing comprehensive metadata for research software, especially in astronomy, to improve discoverability, usability, and community support, with insights from a community-focused workshop.

Contribution

It identifies key metadata needs for research software and explores community preferences to guide metadata standards and resource improvements.

Findings

Researchers prioritize metadata for software discoverability.

Community input influences metadata standards development.

Insights may lead to updates in software repositories like ASCL.

Abstract

Broad efforts are underway to capture metadata about research software and retain it across services; notable in this regard is the CodeMeta project. What metadata are important to have about (research) software? What metadata are useful for searching for codes? What would you like to learn about astronomy software? This BoF sought to gather information on metadata most desired by researchers and users of astro software and others interested in registering, indexing, capturing, and doing research on this software. Information from this BoF could conceivably result in changes to the Astrophysics Source Code Library (ASCL) or other resources for the benefit of the community or provide input into other projects concerned with software metadata.