4 Simple recommendations for Open Source Software: Glossary

Best practices in research software are tied to the FAIR principles

The discussed best practices are not tailored to software developers, but rather to a wider audience

Services like GitHub can be used to make your project public and findable.

Using these tools appropriately encourages and credits contributions to the project.

Making your project public encourages better practices in developing and documenting software.

GitHub makes it easier to get a DOI and publish your software.

First key point.

Having clear guidelines for contribution makes it easier for others to contribute to the project, improving it and increasing its sustainability.

Having a governance structure that is appropriate for the size of the project, will support its growth, and make it more welcoming to new contributors.

Clarifying project goals and ways of communication saves time for current and new contributors.

Metadata is for finding software and documentation for understanding software.

Metadata is essential in making research software findable.

Good (i.e. standardised) metadata ensures that the software is easily discoverable and reusable.

Different platforms use different levels of granularity in metadata.

bio.tools is a good example of a software metadata registry in life sciences.