Episode 275: Richard J. Acton on Research Software Sharing, Publication, & Distribution Checklists (RSSPDC)

Guest Richard J. Acton Panelist Richard Littauer Show Notes In this
episode of Sustain, host Richard Littauer speaks with Richard J.
Acton, a research data outputs manager at the Human Developmental
Biology Initiative based near Cambridge. He discusses his
involvement with open source software through bioinformatics and
his development of a comprehensive checklist for researchers
producing code. This checklist aims to guide researchers in making
their software outputs more citable, reproducible, and
user-friendly. The conversation delves into various themes covered
by the checklist, such as source control, licensing, documentation,
testing, and governance. He also shares his insights on the
importance of open science and transparent research practices, the
challenges of balancing open source work with academic demands, and
the potential role of funders and publishers in supporting these
efforts. Press download more to hear more! [00:00:43] Richard Acton
explains his job at the Human Developmental Biology Initiative and
how the checklist started. [00:01:23] He transitioned into open
source via bioinformatics and Linux and advocates for open science
and reproducibility in software. [00:02:26] We learn why the
checklist was created and the design and structure of the
checklist. [00:05:46] Richard Acton talks about lack and time and
incentives prevent open sourcing and the how the checklist makes
code more citable and boost academic recognition. [00:09:17]
There’s a discussion on the trade-off between citing a paper vs.
citing the code. [00:12:05] The tier system is mentioned and
Richard Acton explains how the checklist encourages progression
from bronze to platinum and goes over the key areas in the
checklist categories. [00:14:21] Governance and community is
discussed with Richard Acton explaining that governance also
includes continuity and community management is addressed
especially for reusable pipelines. [00:16:29] We hear about the
three categories for research code: one-off code, web-based
services, and reusable packages and how the definitions were
tailored for the checklist. [00:17:23] Richard Acton presented the
checklist at the SSI workshop and he’s seeking contributors,
reviewers, and testers. [00:19:18] Richard Action advocates for
publishers to enforce code quality and universities and funders can
hire staff to ease researcher workload, and he speaks about
transparency and quality assurance. [00:24:59] Implementation and
badging is discussed and he shares the grading is currently
designed for self-assessment, but open to expert review in the
future. [00:26:33] Richard Acton is open to collaborating with
CHAOSS and he aims to grow the project into a broader community
standard. [00:27:23] Find out where you can follow Richard Acton
and his work on the web. Quotes [00:02:13] “Software being an
integral part of modern research means that it needs to be open in
order to be reproducible effectively.” Spotlight [00:27:58]
Richard’s spotlight is attending the Birds New Zealand annual conf.
[00:28:55] Richard Acton’s spotlight is ‘rix: Reproducible
Environments with Nix.’ Links podcast@sustainoss.org
(mailto:podcast@sustainoss.org) richard@sustainoss.org
(mailto:richard@sustainoss.org) SustainOSS Discourse
(https://discourse.sustainoss.org/) SustainOSS Mastodon
(https://mastodon.social/tags/sustainoss) SustainOSS Bluesky
(https://bsky.app/profile/sustainoss.bsky.social) SustainOSS
LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/sustainoss/) Open
Collective-SustainOSS (Contribute)
(https://opencollective.com/sustainoss) Richard Littauer Socials
(https://www.burntfen.com/2023-05-30/socials) Richard J. Acton
Website (https://richardjacton.net/) Richard J. Acton Mastodon
(https://fosstodon.org/@RichardJActon) Research Software Sharing,
Publication, & Distribution Checklists (https://rsspdc.org/)
Birds New Zealand (https://www.birdsnz.org.nz/) rix: Reproducible
Environments with Nix (https://github.com/ropensci/rix/) Credits
Produced by Richard Littauer (https://www.burntfen.com/) Edited by
Paul M. Bahr at Peachtree Sound (https://www.peachtreesound.com/)
Show notes by DeAnn Bahr Peachtree Sound
(https://www.peachtreesound.com/) Special Guest: Richard J. Acton.