How to publish software artefacts in institutional repositories: Git integration for DSpace repositories with SARA

Software plays an essential role in today's scientific research. In addition to research data, the software itself should be made available for the long term to enhance the reproducibility of research results. To address this problem we developed a web service (SARA) that integrates Git with institutional repositories. The web service allows researchers to import software artefacts from participating GitLab instances or GitHub. A web interface displays captured metadata, allows the selection of branches, the optional inclusion of the version history and more. Metadata records are pushed to DSpace while the bitstreams are stored in a separate Git archive where you can browse and view the files. Depending on an institution's preferred workflow and DSpace configuration, software artefacts are either immediately available or go through the workspace and/or workflow in DSpace. The web service can be self-hosted and used by one or several institutions, integrating their respective institutional repositories. We are interested in connecting additional repository software and welcome initiatives to contribute to the project.