How Does Good Scientific Practice Apply to Research Software Development ?

Software development is increasingly becoming a part of scientific research activities. Just as in all other areas, adherence to Good Scientific Practice is essential here to ensure that the results obtained with the software meet the high standards of scientific integrity. In particular, the results must be reproducible. Guidelines for Good Scientific Practice are often generic and contain few or no specific recommendations, especially with regard to software and software development.

For example, the “Guidelines for Good Scientific Practice” of the Max Planck Society (GWP-MPG) ¹, page 40, states:

The source code of publicly accessible software must be persistent, citable, and documented.

What does this mean in concrete terms?

How can I make my software freely and openly accessible?
When should research software not be made openly accessible?
How do I create a persistent identifier for software?
How do I cite software?
How do I document software? ...

This collection of frequently asked questions (and their answers) is intended to serve as an initial guide and orientation. We have endeavored to make the questions and answers as general as possible. The frequent reference to publications and circumstances of the Max Planck Society (MPG) is due to the fact that all contributors are or have been employed at institutes and central facilities of the MPG.

The answers reflect the knowledge and experience of the contributors and are not to be understood as official recommendations of the Max Planck Society or other organizations and individuals cited here.

If questions are not, not sufficiently, or incorrectly answered, we kindly ask for feedback, preferably as an issue in our GitLab repository.