2025-04-25 –, Dynamicum
The development of open source software is increasingly recognized as a critical contribution across many disciplines, yet the mechanisms for credit and citation vary significantly. This talk uses astronomy as a case study to explore shared challenges in attributing software contributions across research and industry. It will review the evolution of journal recommendations and policies over the past decade, alongside emerging publishing practices offering insights into their impact on the recognition of software contributions. An analysis of citation patterns for widely used libraries (numpy, scipy, astropy) highlights trends over time and their dependence on publication venues and policies. The talk will conclude with strategies for both developers and users for improving the recognition of software, fostering collaboration and sustainability in software ecosystems. All data and analysis code will be made available in a public repository, supporting transparency and further study.
In many fields, including research and industry, software is essential for driving innovation and scientific discovery, yet mechanisms for crediting software developers remain inconsistent and underdeveloped. This lack of recognition, particularly for open-source contributions, can discourage participation in software development and limit career opportunities for developers. Astronomy, as a computationally intensive discipline with a rich history of open-source software contributions, offers a valuable case study to examine these challenges. Over the past decade, changes in journal policies and emerging publishing practices have sought to address the issue, but their impact on credit attribution remains unclear.
This talk addresses the issue of software credit by analyzing publication and citation practices in astronomy. It evaluates how existing policies acknowledge software contributions and examines variations across journals and over time. Drawing on bibliometric data from the past decade, the analysis focuses on citation patterns for commonly used libraries, trends in citation rates, and the influence of journal policies. The study includes both foundational libraries, such as NumPy, and astronomy-specific libraries, such as Astropy. Based on these findings, the talk will offer recommendations to enhance the attribution of software contributions.
The issue of recognizing research software is not unique to astronomy or research. Participants from industry, other computationally driven fields, open-source communities, and publishing will find the insights applicable to their own disciplines. Understanding how software is cited and credited is critical for shaping more equitable recognition systems, which in turn support sustainable software development and community growth. The audience will leave with a clear understanding of how astronomy’s experience can inform broader efforts to address similar challenges in their respective fields.
The data and code for the analysis will be shared with participants giving participants access to a reproducible framework for analyzing software citation practices in other disciplines or software ecosystems.
Novice
Expected audience expertise: Python:Novice
Public link to supporting material, e.g. videos, Github, etc.:Not available yet.
I am the Lead of the Data Science Group at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, Germany and an editor for the Journal of Open Source Software (JOSS). My scientific work focuses on galaxy evolution. I get my thrills from gravitational lenses, spectra, databases and well-documented APIs.