Enabling Open Science Through Research Code - Episode 4: Documentation for Research Code

This resource sheet was created for Episode 4 of a six-part meetup series focusing on Enabling Open Science through Research Code. The series kicked off on International Research Software Engineering Day.

Episode 4 focussed on Documentation for Research Code.

Questions that were addressed in the session include:

• Why is documentation so critical for research software, and how does it influence the reproducibility and longevity of research outputs?
• Can you share examples where well-documented research software has led to unexpected collaborations or extended its impact?
• How can teams balance the time demands of research and coding with the need to produce high-quality documentation?
• Can you suggest tools or platforms that make documenting research software easier or more collaborative?
• What role do collaborative and community-driven efforts play in improving research software documentation?
• How do you envision the role of AI or automated tools in assisting researchers with documenting their software in the future?

Our speakers:

• Jenny Wong (Product Manager @ 2i2c), UK
• Joel Nitta (Associate Professor @ Chiba University), Japan
• Mthetho Sovara (Research Support Scientist @ Centre for High Performance Computing, National Integrated Cyber Infrastructure System), South Africa

The event was hosted as a collaboration between Talarify, RSSE Africa, RSE Asia, the African Reproducibility Network, and the Research Software Alliance. 

More information is available on the RSSE Africa website.