Research Software

What is Research Software?

Examples of how research software is integral to research; from Nieuwpoort en Katz

There is a broad definition of research software from the FAIR4RS working group:

“Research Software includes source code files, algorithms, scripts, computational workflows and executables that were created during the research process or for a research purpose. Software components (e.g., operating systems, libraries, dependencies, packages, scripts, etc) that are used for research but were not created during or with a clear research intent should be considered software in research and not Research Software.”

It is important to note that not all software that is used in research is research software.

For example, a text editor that is used to write a paper is not research software. Nor is powerpoint, a web browser, or the software used to guide the telescope. Even tools like R or Python are not necessarily research software.

The code written in R or Python for an analysis would be research software, however. Just like a custom-made Excel macro that is used to analyse data. Or a custom-made web application that is used to collect data.

Research Software is mainly used in “Collecting” and “Processing & analyzing” steps. However, non-research software can also be used in these steps, and research software can also be used in other steps.

Materials adapted from the Netherlands eScience Center under CC-BY 4.0.