Open-source research software (Wilhelm Hasselbring et al., IEEE Computer)

I’m happy to report that the ninth article in the open source column of IEEE Computer has been published.

Abstract: Reports on the need to make make software open source. It should be both archived for reproducibility and actively maintained for reusability. In computational and computer science, research software is a central asset for development activities. For good scientific practice, the resulting research software should be open source. Established open source software licenses provide sufficient options for granting permissions such that it should be the rare exception to keep research software closed. Proper engineering is required for obtaining reusable and sustainable research software. This way, software engineering methods may improve research in other disciplines. However, research in software engineering and computer science itself will also benefit when programs are reused. To study the state of the art in this field, we analyzed research software publishing practices in computer and computational science and observed significant differences: computational science emphasizes reproducibility, while computer science emphasizes reuse.

As always, the article is freely available (local copy).

Also, check out the full list of articles.