FAIR4RS Principles: Should be only limited to Research Software?
“Efficiency is doing things right. Effectiveness is doing the right things.” P. Drucker. How we could be more efficient and effective when it comes to research software? The RDA/FORCE11/ReSA FAIR Principles for Research Software (FAIR4RS) Working Group revised and extended the existing FAIR Guiding Principles for Scientific Data Management and Stewardship (bit.ly/FAIR4Data) to apply to research software. The key aim of this effort is to improve the sharing and reuse of research software. The key FAIR principles for Research Software, including source code files, algorithms, scripts and other software components created during the research process or for research purposes are:
- Software and its metadata should be findable
- Software and its metadata should be retrievable via standardized protocols
- Software should be interoperable with other software by exchanging data and/ or metadata described through standards
- Software should be usable and reusable meaning that it can be understood, modified, built upon, or incorporated
Considering the dynamic field of software development for healthcare, the question remains: Should these principles be applied more broadly? If yes, then how?