Cross-posted on the ReSA and Netherlands eScience Center websites.

The Research Software Alliance (ReSA) has published a new blog post titled 'Research software is essential for research data, so how should governments respond?'. It calls on governments to improve their national research software policies by adopting the OECD and UNESCO recommendations, as well as ReSA’s own recommendations.

Earlier this year the OECD Council adopted a Council Recommendation on Access to Research Data from Public Funding, revised to include software, and more recently the UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science was unanimously adopted by member states. 

The ReSA blog post gives an overview of the current state of international adoption of these research software policies and how different countries are addressing these. They then lay out concrete advice and examples for national governments to improve the recognition and value of research software and those who maintain it.

The vision of ReSA and its collaborators is that research software and those who develop and maintain it are recognised and valued as fundamental and vital to research worldwide. Their three key policy recommendations are: 

1. Research software must be recognised as a key element of research.
2. The development and maintenance of research software must be supported.
3. Research software must be as open and/or as Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable (FAIR) as other components, so that the research it enables can be trusted and replicated.

ReSA is encouraging national governments to review their policies and implementation strategies in light of OECD, UNESCO, and ReSA recommendations. 

Read the Research Software Alliance blog post.