Building a FAIR roadmap for research software

This BoF provides an opportunity for FAIR enthusiasts to apply their FAIR expertise to the use case of research software. This BoF will focus on how and when to plan a broad integration across the software landscape of the FAIR principles for software (once developed by the FAIR 4 Research Software Working Group (FAIR4RS WG)) through mechanisms that may include those already utilised or in process for FAIR data. Software has become essential for research, and application of the FAIR guiding principles to software is a vital part of advancing reproducibility and open science.

The 2018 European Commission report, Turning FAIR into Reality, concludes that FAIR digital objects (including software) need to be supported by metrics, incentives, skills and FAIR services that provide persistent identifiers, metadata specifications, stewardship and repositories, actionable policies and Output Management Plans. All of these need to be created for FAIR software, to complement the significant FAIR initiatives that primarily encompass data (and those emerging in other areas such as workflows and training materials), and to leverage the efforts already underway to enable this for software.

A draft of the roadmap identifies relevant software initiatives and equivalent FAIR data programs in areas such as: indicators, metrics, maturity models and certification; curriculums and competence centres, career profiles and reward structures; certification of FAIR services; interoperability frameworks; and policy change.

This discussion will enable a number of outcomes:

• Development of the FAIR for research software roadmap to identify key stakeholders and guide further investment

• Collaboration between FAIR data and software communities to maximise knowledge sharing

• Identification of roadmap elements that are specific to research software and that have not been covered by FAIR for data initiatives

• Mapping of existing FAIR for research software projects into a longer-term framework to improve strategic alignment and potential collaborators/leads for different parts of the roadmap

• Identification of opportunities for existing FAIR initiatives to incorporate a focus on FAIR research software

This works supports the vision of organisations like the Research Software Alliance (ReSA): that research software is recognised and valued as a fundamental and vital component of research worldwide.