# Sustainable software development in science – insights from 20 years of Vanted

## TL;DR

This paper explores how to sustainably develop scientific software, using Vanted as an example of a tool maintained for 20 years.

## Contribution

The paper presents five key insights for long-term maintenance of scientific software, based on a case study and 15-year analysis.

## Key findings

- Fewer than one third of biological network tools are maintained for 15 years.
- Vanted has been actively supported for 20 years, making it a rare example of sustainable software.
- Five key insights are identified for long-term software development in science.

## Abstract

Sustainable software development requires the software to remain accessible and maintainable over long time. This is particularly challenging in a scientific context. For example, fewer than one third of tools and platforms for biological network representation, analysis, and visualisation have been available and supported over a period of 15 years. One of those tools is Vanted, which has been developed and actively supported over the past 20 years. In this work, we discuss sustainable software development in science and investigate which software tools for biological network representation, analysis, and visualisation are maintained over a period of at least 15 years. With Vanted as a case study, we highlight five key insights that we consider crucial for sustainable, long-term software development and software maintenance in science.