Category Archives: oa.software

DOIs for Research Software: Increasing Visibility, Connectivity, Citability

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“Research software are vital outputs of the research endeavour. They are often integral to the generation of research data, and rely heavily on the same technical and social infrastructure to disseminate, cultivate, and coordinate activities. While research software adhering to the same openness and FAIRness ideals as other digital objects should be per se intellegitur, it is only recently that efforts have been started to ensure they are afforded the same long-term preservation and stewardship as other research outputs. However, research software engineers are yet to view making their software FAIR and Open as normative and in their interests. The value of adding PIDs to research software to expose both citation metrics and their interconnections with other research entities is expected to increase researcher buy-in and drive change.

DataCite invites you to join us for a webinar in which you will learn about: – The importance of research software, and the difficulties faced in ensuring they are a first-class citizen of the research endeavour. – How DataCite supports research software, our recommended practices, and projects we are involved in with research software at the forefront. – A Zenodo–GitHub integration highlighting a practical use case of DataCite services for research software. – HERMES, a research software publication system currently in use that was developed by a German group including DataCite Members….”

Some Misconceptions about Software in the Copyright Literature by Joshua Bloch, Pamela Samuelson :: SSRN

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Abstract:  The technical complexity and functionality of computer programs have made it difficult for courts to apply conventional copyright concepts, such as the idea/expression distinction, in the software copyright case law. This has created fertile ground for significant misconceptions. In this paper, we identify fourteen such misconceptions that arose during the lengthy course of the Google v. Oracle litigation. Most of these misconceptions concern application programming interfaces (APIs). We explain why these misconceptions were strategically significant in Oracle’s lawsuit, rebut them, and urge lawyers and computer scientists involved in software copyright litigation to adopt and insist on the use of terminology that is technically sound and unlikely to perpetuate these misconceptions.

 

Interoperable infrastructure for software and data publishing

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“Research data and software rely heavily on the technical and social infrastructure to disseminate, cultivate, and coordinate projects, priorities, and activities. The groups that have stepped forward to support these activities are often segmented by aspects of their identity – facets like discipline, for-profit versus academic orientation, and others. Siloes across the data and software publishing communities are even more splintered into those that are driven by altruism and collective advancement versus those motivated by ego and personal/project success. Roadblocks to progress are not limited to commercial interests, but rather defined by those who refuse to build on past achievements, the collective good, and opportunities for collaboration, insisting on reinventing the wheel and reinforcing siloes.

In the open infrastructure space, several community-led repositories have joined forces to collaborate on single integrations or grant projects (e.g. integrations with Frictionless Data, compliance with Make Data Count best practices, and common approaches to API development). While it is important to openly collaborate to fight against siloed tendencies, many of our systems are still not as interoperable as they could and should be. As a result, our aspirational goals for the community and open science are not being met with the pacing that modern research requires….”

Administrative Supplements to Support Collaborations to Improve the AI/ML-Readiness of NIH-Supported Data | Data Science at NIH

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“Artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) are a collection of data-driven technologies with the potential to significantly advance biomedical research. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) makes a wealth of biomedical data available and reusable to research communities however, not all of these data are able to be used efficiently and effectively by AI/ML applications.

To address these issues, National Institutes of Health (NIH) Office of Data Science Strategy (ODSS) announced “Administrative Supplements to Support Collaborations to Improve the AI/ML-Readiness of NIH-Supported Data” on March 6, 2023. ODSS has also posted Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) for this funding opportunity. The goal of this notice is to make the data generated through NIH-funded research AI/ML-ready and shared through repositories, knowledgebases, or other data sharing resources….”

Administrative Supplements to Support Enhancement of Software Tools for Open Science | Data Science at NIH

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“As part of their research projects, investigators often produce innovative, scientifically valuable software tools. Frequently, these valuable tools cannot be supported long-term or are developed under conditions that aren’t optimal for reuse. In an effort to address this, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Office of Data Science Strategy (ODSS), along with other institutes and centers (ICs) at NIH, announced a renewal of the notice for administrative supplements to enhance software tool development for open science (NOT-OD-23-073) on March 7, 2023.

These supplements will:

support robustness, sustainability, and scalability of existing biomedical research software tools and workflows.
invest in research software tools with recognized value in a scientific community to enhance their impact by leveraging best practices in software development and advances in cloud computing.
support collaborations between biomedical scientists and software engineers to enhance the design, implementation, and “cloud-readiness” of research software….”

Advancing Software Citation Implementation (Software Citation Workshop 2022)

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Abstract:  Software is foundationally important to scientific and social progress, however, traditional acknowledgment of the use of others’ work has not adapted in step with the rapid development and use of software in research.

This report outlines a series of collaborative discussions that brought together an international group of stakeholders and experts representing many communities, forms of labor, and expertise. Participants addressed specific challenges about software citation that have so far gone unresolved. The discussions took place in summer 2022 both online and in-person and involved a total of 51 participants.

The activities described in this paper were intended to identify and prioritize specific software citation problems, develop (potential) interventions, and lay out a series of mutually supporting approaches to address them. The outcomes of this report will be useful for the GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, Museums) community, repository managers and curators, research software developers, and publishers.

AGU/CHORUS Forum: How Open is Open Data & Software?

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“The word “open” is being used commonly in scholarly communications with little context as to what is meant or intended. Researchers have been working openly to their advantage throughout their careers.  What is different now, and what is the value of “being open”?  Is open a binary option?  On or off?  OR is “open” dependent on your context and research objectives with the necessary flexibility?  When we are being open, what is our responsibility around attribution and credit? 

The speakers of this AGU/CHORUS Forum will discuss the open sharing of data and software as a researcher, within a team, and across a community and how it better supports discovery, collaboration, transparency and innovation.”

Positioning software source code as digital heritage for sustainable development | UNESCO

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“The second annual symposium on the theme “Software Source Code as documentary heritage and an enabler for sustainable development” organized by UNESCO and the French National Institute for Research in Digital Science and Technology (Inria) on 7 February 2023, took stock of the initiative’s achievements over the previous few years.

Throughout the conference, five major dimensions of software source code were explored:

as documentary heritage and as an enabler for digital skills education.
as a first-class research object in the open science ecosystem.
as an enabler for innovation and sharing in industry and administration.
its perspectives on long term preservation.
technological advances allowing massive analysis of software source code….”

Positioning software source code as digital heritage for sustainable development | UNESCO

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“The second annual symposium on the theme “Software Source Code as documentary heritage and an enabler for sustainable development” organized by UNESCO and the French National Institute for Research in Digital Science and Technology (Inria) on 7 February 2023, took stock of the initiative’s achievements over the previous few years.

Throughout the conference, five major dimensions of software source code were explored:

as documentary heritage and as an enabler for digital skills education.
as a first-class research object in the open science ecosystem.
as an enabler for innovation and sharing in industry and administration.
its perspectives on long term preservation.
technological advances allowing massive analysis of software source code….”

Better incentives are needed to reward academic software development | Nature Ecology & Evolution

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“Open software underpins most research today, increasing accessibility for scientists to perform state-of-the-art analyses. Positions that require programming skills have correspondingly doubled over the past decade3. The accuracy and reproducibility of scientific results is increasingly dependent on updating and maintaining software. However, the incentive structure in academia for software development — and especially maintenance — is insufficient. It is time that appropriate incentives are embraced to reflect their importance….”

Guest Post – Scholarly Publishing as a Global Endeavor: Leveraging Open Source Software for Bibliodiversity – The Scholarly Kitchen

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“The scale of the adoption of PKP’s open source publishing software around the world may be surprising, but the numbers should be a cause of celebration, for they are a demonstrable improvement in global knowledge exchange. They reflect an increase in engagement, participation, and diversity of contribution to the global scholarly knowledgebase, in origin, language, purpose, and the generation of research and data to find solutions to local and global issues from a new perspective and through a different lens….”

Open eScience Call 2023 (OEC 2023) – eScience Center

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“The call at a glance:

Open to researchers from all disciplines.
Receive in-kind support from eScience Center research software engineers (RSEs) on state-of-the-art research needing research software.
Two project sizes

Early career: 1.5 person year (PYR)
Spearhead: 2.5 person year (PYR)

Two rounds: lightweight pre-proposal and full proposal.
Timeline:

February 14th: Information event
March 16th: Deadline pre-proposal
June 8th: Deadline full proposal…”

Briefing document on strengthening high-quality, open, trustworthy and equitable scholarly publishing

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“To increase the quality and impact of research, research results need to be timely disseminated and easily reused, both within the scientific community and to society in general….

Research results made open access immediately upon publication leads to more researchers being able to validate and build on previous results, which contributes to maintaining and promoting a high quality of research, and to strengthen trust in research. Open access to research results also strengthens the use and impact of research in society at large, e.g. for industry and the public sector…. 

The potential of the digital revolution for scholarly publishing has not yet been fully realized, notably in relation to the expanding range of increasingly important research outcomes such as datasets and software….”