Making Research Software Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable (FAIR) with Codefair

Patel, Bhavesh; Portillo, Dorian; Soundarajan, Sanjay

doi:10.5281/zenodo.17268745

Making Research Software Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable (FAIR) with Codefair

Patel, Bhavesh; Portillo, Dorian; Soundarajan, Sanjay

Publisher: Zenodo
DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17268745
Repository: zenodo.org
Language: en

Abstract

Abstract: Making software Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable (FAIR) can be time-consuming and difficult, especially since it is a continuous process throughout a software’s lifecycle. Codefair is designed to automate the process, letting researchers concentrate on the goals of their software. It is developed as a free and open-source (MIT license) platform with two components: a GitHub app and a web app. Once the Codefair GitHub app is installed on a software’s GitHub repository, Codefair seamlessly integrates into the typically software development workflow by monitoring the repository using tools like Probot, providing feedback via a GitHub issue, allowing the user to address them through user-friendly interfaces on the Codefair web app, and even submitting pull requests automatically to maintain continuous FAIR compliance. With thorough documentation and a design focused on ease-of-use, Codefair is accessible to all. When introduced at US-RSE’24 in an early development phase, Codefair primarily assisted researchers in adding essential metadata elements such as license, CITATION.cff, and codemeta.json. Since then, it has expanded to support streamlined archival on Zenodo and automated validation of Common Workflow Language (CWL) files. A new web dashboard enables easy assessment and management of FAIR compliance across your GitHub repositories. Usage of Codefair has also increased as it is now installed on over 400 GitHub repositories. By alleviating the time and effort needed for FAIR compliance, Codefair encourages biomedical researchers to embrace FAIR and open practices. In this presentation, we will detail our development approach, outline current features, discuss planned features, summarize updates since US-RSE’24, and invite the community to explore and contribute to Codefair.

Full text

Making Research Software Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable (FAIR) with Codefair 1 Bhavesh Patel, Ph.D. Research Professor (presenter) Dorian Portillo, B.S. Research Software Developer Sanjay Soundarajan, M.S. Research Software Developer [email protected] About This Presentation 2 15 min + 2 min Q&A Learn how to make research software FAIR with Codefair Developers, managers, funders of research software (= code files, algorithms, scripts, etc. created during the research process) Making Software FAIR 3 4 Making Software FAIR FAIR4RS principles FAIR Principles for Research Software (FAIR4RS Principles, 2022) are adaption of the FAIR Principles for research software (and more) https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-022-01710-x How do I assign a unique identifier? What is rich metadata? 5 Making Software FAIR FAIR-BioRS: Actionable guidelines for making software FAIR Full guidelines: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-023-02463-x Before starting ●Work from a version controlled system platform (e.g. GitHub) ●Select a license and include a LICENSE file While developing the software ●Record dependencies ●Maintain a README When releasing a new version ●Include metadata in codemeta.json, CITATION.cff, CHANGELOG ●Archive source code on a DOI-issuing repository like Zenodo 6 Making Software FAIR Challenges FAIR-BioRS guidelines Lack inputs outside of biomedical to be generalized Time consuming and difficult to implement Actionable FAIR4RS Task Force Codefair 7 8 Codefair Overview Open source and free GitHub app that acts as your personal assistant for making software FAIR codefair.io 9 Codefair Live demo Demo repository 16 Codefair Demo 17 Codefair Demo 18 Codefair Demo 19 Codefair Demo 20 Codefair Demo 21 Codefair Demo 22 Codefair Demo 23 Codefair Demo 24 Codefair Demo 25 Codefair Demo