HERMES: FAIR(er) software publication through richer metadata

Abstract

Research software powers research across disciplines, and enables us to work with ever larger and more complex research data. Without long-term access to the specific versions of the software that have been used in research, we are unable to reproduce the research that has been done. The deposit of software metadata and artifacts in publication repositories is therefore an important step towards better research reproducibility. What is more, it makes the software citable with the necessary specificity.

Going beyond general availability, reproducibility and citation, publishing software with maximally rich metadata enables software publications to be really FAIR. HERMES - funded by the Helmholtz Metadata Collaboration - is an open source project that enables the publication process for research software metadata and artifacts to be automated. Through harnessing continuous integration systems, HERMES makes it easier for dynamic research software projects to publish their outputs directly from their source code repositories to their publication repositories of choice, making FAIR software publication possible for everyone.

In this presentation, Stephan Druskat will give an overview of HERMES' concept and implementation of automating software publication, the project outcomes, and give an overview of recent and future work based on HERMES.