ELIXIR recognizes the importance of effective software management in enabling sustainable and reproducible research outcomes. The Software Best Practices group, part of the ELIXIR Tools Platform, is actively working towards providing a framework for creating Software Management Plans (SMPs) in ELIXIR. SMPs are crucial for ensuring that research software is developed, maintained, and shared in a structured manner that aligns with industry best practices. However, creating SMPs can be a time-consuming and daunting task, especially for researchers without prior experience in software development or management. Moreover, it is equally important to ensure that any produced SMP can be effectively used in an automated way, i.e. incorporate the appropriate metadata.
To address this challenge, we are proposing a cutting-edge project with the following objectives:
- streamline the process of creating SMPs for research software in ELIXIR by developing the necessary integrators,
- identify and review the appropriate metadata schema, also in connection to relevant initiatives (OpenEBench, FAIR4RS, RDA, maSMPs etc).
Ultimately, the developed solution will be tailored to the unique needs of ELIXIR Communities while being flexible for adoption outside ELIXIR, aiming to provide a smart, efficient and user-friendly way to develop SMPs. Moreover, with a streamlined approach to creating SMPs, we aim to facilitate efficient management of research software, improve the quality and reproducibility of research results, and promote best practices in software management, within ELIXIR and beyond. Furthermore, our project will contribute to the continued success of ELIXIR in integrating and harmonizing biological data resources and tools across Europe.
The team working on this project will have both content and technical expertise to work on the proposed deliverables but external feedback is always welcome. It is expected that at least the listed items 1-4 will be ready for use by the end of the hackathon.
For a successful hacking week we would require at least 2 people from the Software Best Practices team and 2 people from the Data Stewardship Wizard team. Generic programming skills are required. Knowledge of the Jinja2 framework is helpful.
After the hackathon, we will disseminate the results in a BioHackRXiv report and we will collect feedback from real-world use cases. By the end of 2024, we expect to fine-tune the results and include them in the ELIXIR Annual report.
Eva Martin del Pico, Marek Suchánek, Renato Alves