Embedding FAIRness in Plasma Science

开放科学也许最好地体现在软件和数据的公平原则上：它们应该是可查找的，可扩展的，可互操作的和可重用的。当研究人员将他们的代码和数据提供给其他人使用时，其他人更容易验证结果，也更容易建立和使用它们来刺激自己的新研究。与FAIR原则一起的是“可持续”软件的概念，这是一种可以在其最初的预期目的之后继续使用的软件，保持可靠和可复制。可持续发展的软件对于高质量的研究非常重要。该奖学金的目标是帮助等离子体科学的研究人员克服在工作中实施这些原则和想法的障碍，并带来文化变革，使共享FAIR软件和数据成为常态。我将通过建立一个全国性的研究软件工程师网络（RSE）来实现这一目标，他们将在等离子体科学软件生态系统中进行有效的、广泛的改进。我们的目标不是让一个代码变得更好，而是创造和维护一个环境和理念，使英国使用的所有等离子体代码受益--“水涨船高”。为了尽可能多地覆盖社区，这个全国性网络将专注于短期的可用性和可持续性项目，沿着针对个人研究人员和团体的培训。这将与代码审查相结合，RSE将与研究人员一起审查一个软件，并讨论其目标和实现。代码审查在工业界很常见，但在学术界却很少见。代码评审和短项目的使用将使网络更好地了解社区需要和使用什么软件，将目标锁定在最需要的项目上，并鼓励团队之间的软件重用。除了直接改进软件外，我还将在数据方面工作。为此，我将开发工具来帮助克服研究人员采用FAIR数据实践所需的摩擦和努力。这些工具将元数据输出添加到软件中，捕获重要信息，例如什么版本的代码创建了输出。然后可以使用此元数据自动将输出上传到数据库。我将与等离子体科学和数据社区合作，开发这种元数据的样子，而国家网络将在等离子体科学软件生态系统中实现这些工具。

Open science is perhaps best embodied by the FAIR principles for software and data: that they should be Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable. When researchers make their code and data available for others to use, it becomes easier for others to verify results, as well as easier for others to build on and use to spur new research of their own. Alongside the FAIR principles is the idea of "sustainable" software, which is software that can continue to be used after its original intended purpose, remaining reliable and reproducible. Sustainable software is important for high quality research.The goal of this Fellowship is to help researchers in plasma science overcome barriers to implementing these principles and ideas in their work, and bring about a cultural change to make sharing FAIR software and data the norm. I will do this by establishing a national network of research software engineers (RSEs) who will undertake efficient, wide-ranging improvements across the plasma science software ecosystem. The objective is not to make a single code massively better; it is to create and maintain an environment and philosophy that will benefit all plasma codes used in the UK -- "a rising tide lifts all boats".In order to reach as much of the community as possible, this national network will focus on short usability and sustainability projects, along with training tailored to individual researchers and groups. This will be paired with code review, where an RSE will go through a piece of software with researchers and discuss its aims and implementation. Code review is commonplace in industry, but rarer in academia. Together, the use of code review and short projects will give the network a good idea of what software is needed and used by the community, targeting projects where they are most needed and encouraging reuse of software between groups.As well as improving software directly, I will also work on the data front. To do this, I will develop tools to help overcome the friction and effort needed for researchers to adopt FAIR data practices. These tools will add metadata output to software, capturing important information like what version of what code created the output. This metadata can then be used to automate uploading the output to a database. I will work with the plasma science and data communities to develop what this metadata will look like, while the national network will implement these tools across the plasma science software ecosystem.