SciCodes: Astronomy Research Software and Beyond

TL;DR

SciCodes is a new interdisciplinary consortium aiming to improve discoverability and sharing of scientific research software across various fields, building on the success of the astronomy-focused ASCL.

Contribution

It establishes a collaborative framework for research software registries across disciplines, promoting best practices and enhanced discoverability.

Findings

Formation of SciCodes consortium for cross-disciplinary software sharing

Development of best practices for research software repositories

Enhanced discoverability of scientific research software

Abstract

The Astrophysics Source Code Library (ASCL ascl.net), started in 1999, is a free open registry of software used in refereed astronomy research. Over the past few years, it has spearheaded an effort to form a consortium of scientific software registries and repositories. In 2019 and 2020, ASCL contacted editors and maintainers of discipline and institutional software registries and repositories in math, biology, neuroscience, geophysics, remote sensing, and other fields to develop a list of best practices for these research software resources. At the completion of that project, performed as a Task Force for a FORCE11 working group, members decided to form SciCodes as an ongoing consortium. This presentation covered the consortium's work so far, what it is currently working on, what it hopes to achieve for making scientific research software more discoverable across disciplines, and how the consortium can benefit astronomers.