The Research Software Directory: promoting discoverability of research software

The Research Software Directory is a content management system aimed at promoting discoverability, re-use, and citation of research software. The system harvests information from sources such as GitHub, Zenodo and Zotero, and shows research software in the context of associated projects, publications, data sets, and other research output, thereby enabling users to quickly evaluate whether the software is suitable for their purposes. It highlights the team of contributors that has created the software and employs search engine optimization (SEO) techniques to increase the findability of the software it contains. By providing software citation information, it clarifies how the software should be cited if it is reused. In addition, it enables a qualitative assessment of software impact. The system is open-source and is built using common standards, allowing it to link to other services in the open science ecosystem. The Research Software Directory 1) increases the visibility of research software, 2) stimulates reuse of research software, 3) stimulates software citation, and 4) improves the recognition of the position of research software engineers. These factors will contribute to the future of scholarly communication by increasing the discoverability of research software, as well as promote the recognition of research software as a key scholarly output.