Finding Existing Research Software

Re-using Existing Software

Depending on your particular field of research, there may be research software available that can help you develop your research.

There is a lot of proprietary software which can be acquired through the VU. Proprietary software generally has strict constraints regarding further sharing and re-use of the software.

Open-source software allows you to use and build upon existing software available in a variety of programming languages and domains. Research software can be found through both generic and discipline-specific registries or catalogues.

When re-using research software, you must comply to constraints imposed by the licence of that software. Technically, this means some familiarity is needed with the rules and regulations governing software copyright and intellectual property rights. Practically, you will need to be compatible with the licence’s terms and conditions.

The following scheme provides an overview of compatibility of commonly used software licences:

	Combine with ↓
Original →		CC0	MIT	BSD	Apache	GPL, AGPL, LGPL	Proprietary
	CCO	YES	YES	YES	YES	NO	NO
	MIT	YES	YES	YES	YES	NO	NO
	BSD	YES	YES	YES	YES	NO	NO
	Apache	YES	YES	YES	YES	NO	NO
	GPL, AGPL, LGPL	YES	YES	YES	NO	YES	NO
	Proprietary	YES	YES	YES	Claused	NO	Depends on licence

A more complete list of open source licences with terms and conditions is available here.

IXA can provide legal help with the re-use of software.

Finding Existing Research Software

There is a large growth in the number of available open source research software. Many registries (also known as catalogues or “yellow pages”) are available to find existing research software. For example, PyPI (for python), CRAN (for R), Research Software Directory (generic).

An extensive list of research software registries is maintained by the eScience Center here.