Citation File Format and cffinit

Abstract

Creating software for research in an academic setting brings a few extra obligations compared to when you work in industry. For example, research software should be FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable) to make research reproducible. Citing software is an important building block in this, but it’s sometimes not easy to find the relevant correct metadata for software. You can support the researchers using your software by making this information available in a CITATION.cff file in the Citation File Format (CFF). This is also good for you to get recognition. CFF is a plain text format based on YAML that provides the relevant fields for enabling the correct citation of software. This session will start off by introducing CFF, and then continue with an interactive session using cffinit. cffinit is the best visual tool to get you started with creating CFF files, or editing existing ones. It helps you automatically validate your CFF file from your browser - you don’t need to install anything on your computer. Beyond cffinit, the Citation File Format is integrated with other existing platforms and tools. At the end of the session, we will demonstrate how your CFF file automatically improves the metadata for publications of your software in the open access repository Zenodo.