If we want software sustainability as default behaviour we must change academic culture

Research software is software that you use to generate, process or analyse results that you intend to appear in a publication.

It can be anything from a few lines of code written by yourself, to a professionally developed software package.

Use software

Fundamental to results

69%

92%

n=417

DOI:10.5281/zenodo.1183562

n=594

www.bit.ly/SotSoftStudy2019

"Not at all"

"Vital"

n=594

Who is writing all the software?

Ascension, John Singleton Copley, Public Domain

2012: birth of a name

https://www.software.ac.uk/blog/2016-08-17-not-so-brief-history-research-software-engineers

Research

Software

Engineering

The Research Software Engineer is a new role in research.

It combines an intimate understanding of research with professional software engineering expertise

1428

members

March 2019

2014: the UKRSE Association

2016: the RSE Conference

~10,000 RSEs worldwide

Image courtesy Ian Cosden

www.society-rse.org

The Society of Research Software Engineering was founded on the belief that a world which relies on software must recognise the people who develop it

Nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come

- Victor Hugo

https://www.software.ac.uk/blog/2021-01-28-farewell-rses-reflecting-our-progress-and-remaining-barriers

RSE Conference 2022

2013

2023

https://society-rse.org/community/rse-groups/

How many RSEs

in your group?

https://github.com/softwaresaved/RSE-Group-Leaders-Survey-2023_Python

Describe demand for

your services

https://github.com/softwaresaved/RSE-Group-Leaders-Survey-2023_Python

https://github.com/SimonHettrick/parsing_rse_job_adverts

Adverts on jobs.ac.uk with "Research Software Engineer" in the title

Research software engineers who port and maintain these codes and optimise system performance are a crucial part of operational infrastructure

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/future-of-compute-review/the-future-of-compute-report-of-the-review-of-independent-panel-of-experts

Universities should embrace Research Software Engineering as an intellectually and academically creative collaborative discipline, especially in health, with realistic salaries and recognition.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/624ea0ade90e072a014d508a/goldacre-review-using-health-data-for-research-and-analysis.pdf

You can use the funding for:

• development and re-engineering of existing software
• maintenance activities
• activities that widen participation in development and maintenance.

https://www.ukri.org/opportunity/software-for-research-communities/

If we don't recognise the work that is vital to research,

we limit our ability to conduct research

Software

(Parts of) books

Journal articles

Physical artefacts

Exhibitions and performances

Other documents

Digital artefacts

www.hidden-ref.org

120 submissions in total