SSI

Is usable software important for you research? It’s a simple question, and I’d think a simple answer. From statistical analysis, to cloud services for data storage, to less mature but still necessary workflow management; most research scientitist I speak to use research software. While some of this software comes from industry as mature ‘billable’ applications or infrastructure, lots of software comes from research developments ‘by scientists for scientists’. Important but created on finite grants, it need to be preseved and developed for all to use.

At the forefront is the Software Sustainability Institute (www.software.ac.uk) who have started a petition to gather support to recognise the fundamental importance of software to research.

This is in response to the ever increasing reliance on well engineered and sustainable software practices, codes and systems to help support world leading research.

But they need both mine and your help if our efforts are to pay off and we are to be able to rely on research softaware making it into a sustainable and useable format.

If you support research software then please visit the change.org page where you can also sign the petition:

https://www.change.org/p/everyone-in-the-research-community-we-must-accept-that-software-is-fundamental-to-research-or-we-will-lose-our-ability-to-make-groundbreaking-discoveries

Please consider supporting this endeavour further by re-tweeting

Or by mentioning the petition on your own social media account(s) e.g.LinkedIn with a status such as “Software is fundamental to research – if you agree, please show your support: http://lnkd.in/b2fea5F”.

You could also send an email to any groups that you are a member of or directly contact anyone you know who has the ear of the research community and ask them to sign up.