Research Software Engineering Inside and Outside the Library

Abstract

The importance of software to research is growing, which is reflected in the emergence of the Research Software Engineer (RSE) role and moves to recognise software as a research output. The Research Computing team at the University of St Andrews sits within the Digital Research division of the Library and seeks to support research in two principal ways. Firstly, the team are available as a development resource to researchers across the University. This work ranges from the setting up and maintaining of project websites that facilitate collaboration and the dissemination of research outputs to the development of custom applications which enable the gathering, processing, interrogation and publication of research data. Secondly, the team is leading initiatives to understand and support better the breadth and depth of research software engineering activities across the University. Until recently there was very little awareness of how much of this work was going on, who was carrying it out and how well supported they were. In July 2016, the University carried out a research data management survey and, of the 300 academics, research staff and students who responded, 41% indicated that they “write, develop or maintain programs, scripts or other code” as part of their research. Most were from scientific disciplines, but they included people from all disciplines. Further efforts are being made to identify how best to support this work and to put in place training and online resources to encourage good practice and sustainable software development. Better software means better and more reproducible research. This talk will describe how, alongside Digital Humanities and Research Data Management colleagues, the RSEs on the team in the Library contribute directly to research projects and are also building a professional support network for those outside the Library who develop software as part of their research activity.