FAIR for research software session update - Virtual Plenary 15

The session FAIR for research software (FAIR4RS) under the Software Source Code Interest Group (SSC IG) took place during the virtual RDA plenary 15 at two different times (March 18th and 20th). The first session had 15 attendees (22 registered) and the second one 33 attendees (no registration required). Note, five people participated in both of the meetings (all of them presenters), which makes a total of 50 participants across both sessions. Each meeting ran for 1.5 hours and the agenda included:

1. Software Source Code Interest Group (SSC IG) update

2. Updates on related projects FAIR for Research Software (Versioning, Metadata, Metrics/Indicators, Relevance of FAIR4RS)

3. Activity - split into groups for discussions

4. Future group activity discussion

   1. Who wants to take part?

   2. Why do we care about FAIR for research software?

   3. What should the scope for a FAIR for research software WG be?

   4. Moving forward with a FAIR4RS WG across RDA, ReSA and FORCE11

Both sessions were virtual and included a group update and discussion. We used a slide deck for presentations and collaboratively took notes http://tiny.cc/FAIR4ResSof. Both of these resources are publicly accessible, please take your time to review the notes.

The meetings continued community-led discussions (at RDA, FORCE11, ELIXIR, etc.) on how to define and effectively apply FAIR principles to research software. The goals for both sessions were to update the community on previous efforts and to assess the interest across the community on the topic of FAIR principles as applied to research software. Both sessions were an opportunity to collect feedback on the scope, outputs, and leadership interest of a new working group to take forward development of the principles.

Participants agreed to the formation of a  FAIR for research software (FAIR4RS) working group supported not only by RDA but FORCE11 and ReSA. If you are interested in joining this working group please express interest by commenting on this update. We are requesting all interested participants to document their interest level (1 for high, 2 for medium, 3 for observer/news receiver). So far, we have 10 people with interest rated high, which makes a great number for a steering committee. We aim to write a proposal to be reviewed at our initial meeting in the coming weeks. If you would like to provide input into priorities, community organisation structure, and/or general course of operations and communications, we look forward to hearing from you.

Prepared by Paula Andrea Martinez, Michelle Barker and Morane Gruenpeter.

Reviewed by Daniel S. Katz, Fotis E. Psomopoulos and Leyla Jael Garcia Castro

March 30, 2020