Abstract

Professional software practices increasingly involve software sharing and collaborative development of software. As science becomes an increasingly collaborative enterprise, is there any increasing need for collaborative software practices? We collected data from geoscientists in early career stages with diverse research areas. Although they had varying software development skills, they consistently emphasized the need for improved software sharing and reuse. Moreover they wish to learn more about modern software sharing, open source communities, and collaborative software development practices as they become more interested in various aspects of software stewardship. We briefly examine the current educational resources that early career scientists may have encountered and note that very few address the issues raised by our respondents. Accordingly, we argue that these aspects of work in today’s science ought to be incorporated in scientific method and education curricula for scientists. We conclude with preliminary strategies for addressing this.

Date

March 14, 2026

Authors

Yolanda Gil, Eunyoung Moon, James Howison

Journal

Proceedings of the 2nd Workshop on Sustainable Software for Science: Practice and Experiences (WSSSPE2)