Ten simple rules for PIs to integrate Research Software Engineering into their research group

TL;DR

This paper provides ten practical rules for research group leaders to effectively integrate Research Software Engineering (RSEng) into their teams, enhancing research quality and reproducibility.

Contribution

It offers a clear, accessible set of guidelines to help PIs adopt RSEng practices, addressing technical complexity and promoting better research software development.

Findings

Improved research software quality and reproducibility.

Enhanced accessibility of RSEng for researchers.

Practical, actionable advice for research leaders.

Abstract

Research Software Engineering (RSEng) is a key success factor in producing high-quality research software, which in turn enables and improves research outcomes. However, as a principal investigator or leader of a research group you may not know what RSEng is, where to get started with it, or how to use it to maximize its benefit for your research. RSEng also often comes with technical complexity, and therefore reduced accessibility to some researchers. The ten simple rules presented in this paper aim to improve the accessibility of RSEng, and provide practical and actionable advice to PIs and leaders for integrating RSEng into their research group. By following these rules, readers can improve the quality, reproducibility, and trustworthiness of their research software, ultimately leading to better, more reproducible and more trustworthy research outcomes.