...
Advanced software maintenance systems make use of version control systems and dependency management. The result of these two types of technologies results in the ability to have any version in a software's release history being automatically available and be able to run, where applicable. With the additions such as 'continuous integration' software can be validated to be in good working order and so ensure it is fit to be use. Building on these technologies, in the not too distant future the working environment for software making can mean that greater sustainability can be achieved, example are a project like Binder for republish Jupyter notebooks https://mybinder.org
Maybe a #Open SciFi story - what if?
Breaking down the topic
- A key issue is discovery and evaluation. Researchers need more information about software used in experiments, and to have access to the source code to be able to access and run the software cited.
- For software maintainers guidance is needed about what core metadata needs to be stored with the software in a similar way to how open licences and copyright notices are stored.
- Currently how to cite software is not clear or technically resolved.
- Look at projects going on to create systems for software citation: to record, to read, to collect, etc. Get input from different projects. What are their research questions/interim findings. So far these examples have been found: CodeMeta, CFF, and CiteAs.
- What information do journals and repositories want when submitting software
- How can citing be more useful for researchers. Is there enough information to be useful for research publication/software readers/users
- The Future: Can software cited be fully available in a – validated, CI, packet managed, dependency managed, and virtualised way – so that it can be retrieved or run live. e.g, Jupyter https://jupyter.org/ and Binder to republish https://mybinder.org
- Note: we need clear guidelines or pointers to this info, for different users: software makers, journal submissions of software, and academic writers of scholarly literature editorial groups wanting to cite software.
- Area survey. Top three info sources in each area: journals, papers, software citation software project, working groups and organisations
- Simple guides
- Look for working groups like Force11 working groups
...