Presenting the Actionable Guidelines for FAIR Research Software Task Force (Poster)

Abstract:

The Research Software Alliance (ReSA) has established a Task Force dedicated to translating the FAIR Principles for Research Software (FAIR4RS Principles) into practical, actionable guidelines. Existing field-specific actionable guidelines, such as the FAIR Biomedical Research Software (FAIR-BioRS) guidelines, lack cross-discipline community input. The Actionable Guidelines for FAIR Research Software Task Force, formed in December 2024, brings together a diverse team of researchers and research software developers to address this gap. The Task Force began by analyzing the FAIR4RS Principles, where it identified six key requirement categories: Identifiers, Metadata for software publication and discovery, Standards for inputs/outputs, Qualified references, Metadata for software reuse, and License. To address these requirements, six sub-groups are conducting literature reviews and community outreach to define actionable practices for each category. Some of the challenges include identifying suitable identifiers, archival repositories, metadata standards, and best practices across research domains. This poster provides an overview of the Task Force, presents its current progress, and outlines opportunities for community involvement. Given the progressive adoption of the FAIR4RS Principles, including by funders, we expect this poster will provide attendees at USRSE’25 with an understanding of the FAIR4RS Principles and how they can make their software FAIR through actionable, easy-to-follow, and easy-to-implement guidelines being established by our Task Force.