Dr Sam Mangham
ORCID:0000-0001-7511-5652

The Software Sustainability Institute and reproducible research software

Cultivating better software

to enable world-class research

Link to slides

Why am I here?

At PyHEP, specifically

Is research software important?

S.J.Hettrick et al, Software in Research Survey, 2014;

DOI:10.5281/zenodo.1183562

S.Crouch et al, ePrints: Searching for Software, 2018;

https://github.com/softwaresaved/Eprints-searching-for-software

S.Hettrick et al, UK Investment in Software-reliant Research, 2014;

https://www.software.ac.uk/blog/2014-10-22-ps840-million-uks-investment-software-reliant-research-2013

Left: Correct,

Right: Predicted

G.Miller, Crystallography bug leads to 5 retractions, 2006;

DOI:10.1126/science.314.5807.1856

J.B.Neupane et al,  [A] Glitch with the “Willoughby–Hoye” Scripts for Calculating NMR Chemical Shifts, 2018; DOI:10.1021/acs.orglett.9b03216

Software is very important!

Who writes research software?

S.J.Hettrick et al, Software in Research Survey, 2014;

DOI:10.5281/zenodo.1183562

S.J.Hettrick, Southampton Software Survey, 2019;

https://github.com/Southampton-RSG/soton_software_survey_analysis_2019

S.J.Hettrick, Southampton Software Survey, 2019;

https://github.com/Southampton-RSG/soton_software_survey_analysis_2019

S.J.Hettrick, Southampton Software Survey, 2019;

https://github.com/Southampton-RSG/soton_software_survey_analysis_2019

Some researchers need help with their code

S.J.Hettrick, A Brief History of RSEs, 2016;

http://slides.com/simonhettrick/why-we-need-careers-for-research-software-engineers-10-13-17#/1/4

Software

Engineering

Research

Researcher

Software Engineer

Researcher-Developer

Research

Software

Engineer

What does the SSI do?

Consultancy

Training

Policy

Community

Outreach

Consultancy

Training

Policy

Community

Outreach

Fellowships

2020 Fellowships call

open 'til October 29th

17 Fellowships awarded in 2019

£3000/15 months

to further the SSI's goals

RSE Campaign

https://society-rse.org

What has the SSI learned?

Best Practises

...and 'good enough' ones

G. Wilson et al, Good Enough Practises in Scientific Computing, 2016; arXiv:1609.00037

G. Wilson et al, Best Practises in Scientific Computing, 2014; DOI:10.1371/journal.pbio.1001745

  • Keep all your data
  • Comment your code
  • Write documentation
  • Name & organise files clearly
  • Use version control for code
  • Back up your data
  • License your code!

Don't take the basics for granted

...but don't forget specialist skills!

National communities

RSE Conference

society-rse.org/events

Research Software London

rslondon.ac.uk

N8CIR

n8cir.org.uk

Regional communities

Thanks for listening

Now we want to listen back

Society of RSE

society-rse.org

SSI Fellows

software.ac.uk/fellows

RSE Slack

society-rse.org/contact

Email

s.w.mangham@soton.ac.uk

Thanks to Simon Hettrick!