Nine best practices for research software registries and repositories

Area of Science:

• Computer Science
• Information Science
• Scientific Research

Background:

• Scientific software registries and repositories are vital for software findability, research transparency, and preservation of computational methods.
• Existing resources play a critical role in supporting research reproducibility and replicability.
• Limited guidelines exist for prospective creators of these scientific software resources.

Purpose of the Study:

• To address the need for guidelines in developing scientific software registries and repositories.
• To distill experiences from managers of existing resources to set stakeholder expectations.
• To present best practices for establishing and managing scientific software registries and repositories.

Main Methods:

• Convening a Task Force under the FORCE11 Software Citation Implementation Working Group.
• Distilling experiences from managers of existing scientific software registries and repositories.
• Defining scope, policies, and rules governing individual registries and repositories.

Main Results:

• Development of best practices for scientific software registries and repositories.
• Inclusion of background information, examples, and collaborative work in the development process.
• Emphasis on defining scope, policies, and rules for these resources.

Conclusions:

• Established best practices will aid in the creation and management of scientific software registries and repositories.
• Specific policies are essential for these resources to effectively serve users and their respective disciplines.
• Implementing these policies will enhance software discoverability, transparency, and reproducibility in scientific research.