CODE beyond FAIR: a roadmap for reusable research software

TL;DR

This paper proposes a roadmap to improve the reuse and sharing of research software by extending FAIR principles to include all stakeholders in the research process.

Contribution

The paper introduces a tiered roadmap for enhancing research software reuse, tailored to the unique nature of software compared to data.

Findings

Research software differs from data and requires specific strategies for reuse.

A tiered approach involving multiple stakeholders can improve research software sustainability.

Institutions, funders, and publishers play a key role in advancing research software practices.

Abstract

FAIR principles are a set of guidelines aiming at simplifying the distribution of scientific data to enhance reuse and reproducibility. This article focuses on research software, which significantly differs from data in its living nature, and its relationship with free and open-source software. We provide a tiered roadmap to improve the state of research software, which takes into account the full range of stakeholders in the research software ecosystem: all scientific staff – regardless of prior software engineering training – but also institutions, funders, libraries and publishers.

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