Software as a first class output in a FAIR ecosystem

Software is a significant and vital component of research. It is integral to all stages of research and can play the role of a tool, a research result, or a research object. Since software source code has been recently recognised as an important asset also in the field of scientific research, complementing publications and research data, it is essential to collect and preserve it.

Software Heritage (SWH) is the universal source code archive, collecting, preserving and sharing the largest collection of source code. Software Heritage is now providing the infrastructure for depositing and referencing software source code, in collaboration with national and international open access portals.

In parallel, the RDA & ReSA and FORCE11 working group FAIR for Research Software has identified divergences between software and data and the crucial need to translate the FAIR data principles to be relevant for software artifacts. In September 2021 the working group published the first version of the FAIR for Research Software principles after a community review.

Finally, the importance of archiving, referencing, describing and citing software is a common goal to have better recognition and interoperability of software in a FAIR ecosystem.