What are you looking for?
Back to Plenary Participation
Group Session July 3, 2024

Update from Policies in Research Organisations for Research Software (PRO4RS) Working Group

Plenary: RDA 23rd Plenary Meeting – San José, Costa Rica

Submitted by
Carlos Martinez-Ortiz
Open collaborative note
Recording
Slide

Meeting objectives

This session will facilitate the activities of this joint RDA/Research Software Alliance (ReSA) Working Group (WG) to support research performing organisations worldwide to develop, align and implement policies on research software, as a key component of FAIR and open science.
This meeting will serve the following objectives:
– The PRO4RS WG will provide an update on progress made by the WG to date
– The session will provide a platform for the WG to engage with others interested in research software policies.
– The PRO4RS will kick-start the work a subgroup which aims at the identification of case studies to increase adoption of (standardised) policies, which may be sourced from WG members, ReSA’s list of institutional policies (https://www.researchsoft.org/software-policies/), etc.

Meeting presenters

Daniel S. Katz|Pedro Hernandez Serrano|Hugh Shanahan

Meeting agenda

1. Introduction to the WG – creating a community of stakeholders involved in promoting and/or implementing policy that supports research software at research institution level
2. Update of our working group activities:
a. List of institutional software policies (https://www.researchsoft.org/software-policies/).
b. Resources for supporting policy change in research institutions in practice (https://zenodo.org/doi/10.5281/zenodo.11529658).
c. Analysis underway of existing policies to define a common framework for research software policy.

3. Discussion on upcoming activity to identify and write-up case studies that can assist the community in understanding how policy influence and evolution may occur
4. Discussion on how to disseminate outputs to a broader audience for adoption, including university consortia.

Target audience

The PRO4RS WG will be of interest in policy change in the research sector, or how to increase support for research software and the people who develop and maintain it. It will be particularly relevant to participants who: seek to change policies in their own research institutions (in any area, not just research software); are part of national and/or international organisations that engage with research institutions; or are interested in open science policies for any stakeholder group (such as Data Stewards, publishers, repositories, funders, research infrastructures).

Group Activities and Scope

An increasing number of initiatives are focusing on implementation of research software within the context of FAIR and open science. Efforts to align policies from funders, journals, and governments are also in progress. However, there is a significant gap around how research performing organisations can develop and implement policies to help sustainability of software outputs and underpin research quality.

This session will engage the community in the projects underway in the Working Group to create a community of stakeholders involved in promoting and/or implementing policy that supports research software at research institution level. Ultimately, by establishing solid policies for research data and software management, institutions can promote good research practices, enhance collaboration, foster reproducibility, and maximise the value and impact of efficient and reliable scientific research.

Additional links to informative material

https://www.researchsoft.org/software-policies/

Short Group Status

The WG has continued to make progress in their planned work, with the various sub-groups making progress in their own tasks:

– Sub-group 1 has identified multiple institutional policies that support research software and included them in the list of institutional software policies (https://www.researchsoft.org/software-policies/).
– Sub-group 2 has produced a report: Resources for supporting policy change in research institutions in practice (https://zenodo.org/doi/10.5281/zenodo.11529658).
– Sub-group 3 is in the process of analysing existing policies to define a common framework for research software policy.

Estimate of the required venue room capacity

Under 50 seats

Applicable Pathways

Other (Research software)

Please indicate at least (3) three breakout slots that would suit your meeting.

Breakout 1. Tuesday, 12 November, 16:00-17:30 UTC
Breakout 3. Wednesday, 13 November, 14:00-15:30 UTC
Breakout 4. Wednesday, 13 November, 16:00-17:30 UTC
Breakout 6. Thursday, 14 November, 16:00-17:30 UTC