a few rewordings after reading

Author: knarrff

paper.tex

@@ -265,13 +265,13 @@ \subsection{Module 1: Foster a local Network of RSEs}%
 
 One of the core responsibilities of an RSE unit is to act as a coordinator of RSE activities within the institution.
 Research software is an integral part of modern research. 
-There are, therefore, researchers in every institution that at least sometimes perform the tasks of an RSE.
+There are, therefore, researchers in every institution that at least sometimes perform the tasks of an RSE\@.
 We call these RSEs embedded RSEs.
 These RSEs typically work isolated from similar RSEs in different groups, within the same institution.
 The central RSE unit together with the embedded RSEs form a hub and spokes network.
 
 Connecting embedded RSEs has multiple positive effects, both for them as well as for the organisation:
-It will enable them to get to know others in similar situations and to learn from as well as support each other.
+It will enable them to learn from others in similar situations and to support each other.
 Embedded RSEs can ask a central RSE unit for advice on specific problems.
 They can also pass some tasks to the central RSE unit if they lack the knowledge or resources to solve those themselves.
 Contact with the central RSE unit also helps RSEs to professionalise their software-related work, which will directly benefit not only themselves but also their research groups.
@@ -297,21 +297,20 @@ \subsection{Module 2: Consultation Services}%
 The hub is a natural place to provide this central service.
 There are a number of scenarios where RSE consultation services differ strongly in scale and format.
 We mention a few of these in the following.
-“Walk-in” consultations on any research software related aspect that are open to researchers of all career levels are
-a great introduction to the hub's RSE services and are offered by almost all RSE units already established (see e.g. data in section~\ref{sec:existing} or \cite{Katz2019}).
+“Walk-in” consultations on any research software related aspect that are open to researchers of all career levels are a great introduction to the hub's RSE services and are offered by almost all RSE units already established (see e.g.\ data in Section~\ref{sec:existing} or~\cite{Katz2019}).
 
 A larger scale format for RSE consultation services could be that a research project regularly meets with an RSE in order to coordinate the research software efforts done in the research project.
 This format enables valuable feedback cycles between researchers and RSEs and allows RSEs to guide the project
 towards successful software engineering best practices without overloading the researchers with information at a walk-in consultation.
 When an RSE unit carries out many of these project consultations, they will gather valuable experiences in transferring RSE knowledge to practitioners.
 An RSE hub puts these experiences into institutional memory, allowing for better RSE practice in the future.
 
-RSE consultation services are also of great importance in proposal writing.
+RSE consultation services also have a positive impact on grant proposal quality.
 Many proposals critically depend on research software to be developed and the requirements of funding agencies with respect to research software are growing and will continue to do so.
 Similar to dedicated RDM units that provide institutional support for data management plans,
 the RSE hub can support researchers by providing expertise with software management plans and the software engineering best practices required by these plans.
 Consultation services that are already involved in the proposal phase are expected to lead to an improved research workflow and thereby to better research.
-This should lead to improved proposal acceptance rates, thereby amortising the initial investment into RSE units.
+This in turn leads to improved proposal acceptance rates, thereby amortising the initial investment into RSE units.
 
 
 \subsection{Module 3: Development Services}%
@@ -324,7 +323,7 @@ \subsection{Module 3: Development Services}%
 Similar to consultation services, this service can be offered at multiple scales.
 
 Many times, even a small effort of a skilled RSE can have a huge impact on a research project that requires dedicated research software development.
-With the leverage of these projects being usually very high, realising as many of them as possible gives a great boost to the research institution.
+With the impact of these projects being usually very high, realising as many of them as possible gives a great boost to the research institution.
 Many existing RSE units (\eg{} Manchester, Heidelberg) offer this type of small scale service free of charge and use it to promote their services within the institution.
 
 For research projects requiring more substantial software development resources, an RSE unit could --- either through central or embedded RSEs --- provide the required developer capacity.
@@ -369,31 +368,31 @@ \subsection{Module 4: Teaching Services}%
 A central RSE unit can provide or organise training for researchers and embedded RSEs.
 This can replace self-education for foundational software development skills and provide a basis from which researchers can continue to learn more specialised skills guided by experts of the central RSE unit.
 Since teaching material for foundational software development skills is freely available,
-the tasks remaining for a central RSE unit are to adapt the material to local requirements as well as to organise and hold courses and workshops.
+ the tasks remaining for a central RSE unit are to adapt the material to local requirements as well as to organise and hold courses and workshops.
 
 For more complex software development projects, a central RSE unit can offer individual training.
-In both cases the expert RSEs from the central RSE unit can pass on their knowledge precisely adapted to the concrete needs of those that they support.
+In both cases, the expert RSEs from the central RSE unit can pass on their knowledge precisely adapted to the concrete needs of those that they support.
 Finally, in organisations that educate RSEs, members of a central RSE unit may contribute to the curriculum of the institutional study programmes and teach corresponding courses. 
 
 \subsection{Module 5: Create a Network of Institutional Partners}%
 \label{sec:partners}
 
 Within a research institution, a lot of groups or departments touch the topic of research software one way or another.
-However, their coverage of RSE-related needs of researchers is often limited and their main responsibilities, even as diverse as they are across institutions, typically lie elsewhere.
-While this is one of the main arguments for the creation of dedicated RSE units, it also shows the necessity for an RSE unit to closely interact with its respective partners.
+However, their coverage of RSE-related needs of researchers is often limited and their main responsibilities are diverse and typically lie elsewhere.
+This is one of the main arguments for the creation of dedicated RSE units.
+However, it also shows the necessity for an RSE unit to closely interact with those partners.
 
-In the following, we describe groups or units that can typically be found within academic organisations,
-what they usually focus on and how we envision collaborations with an RSE unit.
-However, note that as research organisations can differ widely from one another, so can the tasks and even existence of the entities below.
+In the following, we describe groups or units that can typically be found within academic organisations, their focus, and how we envision their collaboration with an RSE unit.
+However, note that as research organisations can differ widely from one another, so can the tasks and even existence of these entities.
 Arguments and conclusions below have to be adapted to specific circumstances when applying them to specific environments.
 
 All research institutions in Germany can use the services provided by a central \textbf{IT unit} in one form or another.
 The central IT unit typically looks after common compute and storage infrastructure in data centres and associated network infrastructure.
-They also provide software services such Email, web services, databases and administer standard desktops and laptops (at least for administrative staff).
-However, research software often has to work within the environment provided by the IT unit.
+They also provide software services such as Email, web services, and databases, and administer standard desktops and laptops (at least for administrative staff).
+Research software often has to work within the environment provided by the IT unit.
 A central RSE unit can help researchers adapt their software to run on central services where necessary.
 RSEs can also work with central IT staff to provide IT infrastructure well suited for research projects.
-Usually, this requires a level of engagement and understanding of both the underlying research concepts and IT infrastructure that the staff of the IT unit or the researchers cannot provide alone.
+Usually, this requires a level of engagement and understanding of both the underlying research concepts and IT infrastructure that the staff of the IT unit or the researchers each cannot provide alone.
 
 If available, a second important partner is a scientific \textbf{library}, which has already gained tasks much beyond the preservation and organisation of publications on physical paper for quite some time.
 Besides digital forms of rather traditional publications, these more and more include digital data and recently also software publications, their discovery and citation.
@@ -409,17 +408,17 @@ \subsection{Module 5: Create a Network of Institutional Partners}%
 Some research institutions might host a dedicated \textbf{HPC group} which may or may not be part of the central IT unit.
 HPC is an RSE-related field, so HPC groups might already provide training, consulting and funding opportunities in this area.
 At the same time, HPC by nature focuses on highly efficient, many-core, if possible parallel computations.
-The challenges of an average researchers often start a long way before reaching that level, and they might not ever need to consider HPC.
+The challenges of an average researchers often start a long way before reaching that level, and they might not ever need to consider HPC\@.
 There are obvious reasons to closely collaborate on both consulting and training, yet at the same time a central RSE unit has to provide a much broader portfolio.
 
 \subsection{Module 6: RSE Infrastructure Provisioning}%
 \label{sec:infrastructure}
 
 IT and (potentially high-performance) computing infrastructure provisioning is usually the purview of an institution's IT unit.
 However, a central RSE unit can provide extra services by acting as an intermediary for RSE infrastructure and by hosting pilot instances of new tools and services.
-IT departments typically only provide the service for hosting and accessing IT infrastructures, such as RSE infrastructures.
-Central RSE units are a link between the central services offered either by IT units or over-archingly available services on one side,
-and embedded RSEs on the other, offering documentation, training and best-practices to efficiently and effectively use available services and comply with established processes.
+IT departments typically provide the service for hosting and accessing long-term IT infrastructures, including RSE infrastructures.
+Central RSE units are a link between the central, generally available services on one side,
+and embedded RSEs on the other, offering documentation, training and best-practices to efficiently use available services and comply with established processes.
 
 Furthermore, the central RSE unit can offer consulting for embedded RSEs to guide selection processes of the tools and services best suited for each project.
 This holds for existing RSE, or more general IT, infrastructure.
@@ -429,7 +428,7 @@ \subsection{Module 6: RSE Infrastructure Provisioning}%
 
 It is crucial that the RSE unit does not compete with the IT unit, nor should it duplicate existing infrastructure.
 On the contrary, the RSE unit should act as a multiplier for the RSE-relevant services offered by the IT unit, helping RSEs to discover and use existing and upcoming services.
-Similarly, the RSE unit can promote the use of the available computing infrastructure provided by an IT unit, helping with the support of the users when RSE-related questions in this context arise.
+Similarly, the RSE unit can promote the use of the available computing infrastructure provided by an IT unit, providing support for users when RSE-related questions in this context arise.
 Once the mutual collaboration between an RSE unit and an IT unit has been established, a stricter policy-based involvement of the RSE unit for infrastructure requests is envisioned.
 Overall, by acting as an intermediary for RSE infrastructure related requests, the central RSE unit can augment the central IT unit, providing embedded RSEs with the specific support they require.
 
@@ -444,15 +443,13 @@ \subsection{Module 7: Research Software Engineering Research}%
 \subsection{Module 8: Software Maintenance Service}%
 \label{sec:maintenance}
 
-Funder policies such as~\autocite{dfg_gsp} require long-term preservation of used research data and software in an adequate way.
-For research data, established procedures to implement this requirement exist.
+Funder policies such as the DFG “Guidelines for Safeguarding Good Research Practice”~\autocite{dfg_gsp} require long-term preservation of used research data and software in an adequate way.
 For research software, dedicated archiving solutions such as Software Heritage~\autocite{DiCosmo2020,DiCosmo2023} or Zenodo's GitHub integration~\autocite{GitHubZenodo} exist.
-
-In contrast to research data, the long-term availability and usability of research software requires more than an adequate archiving method:
-Software maintenance is the ongoing change process of software after its release.
+In contrast to research data, however, the long-term availability and usability of research software requires more than an adequate archiving method:
+Software maintenance is an ongoing change process of software after its release.
 It includes  both fixing bugs that are discovered in the software and adapting the software to changes in the execution environment such as hardware, operating system, toolchain and software dependencies.
 In the scientific community there is a demand for long term maintenance of research software,
-but academic labour turnover and missing funding schemes make research software maintenance often rely on the (potentially unpaid) efforts of individuals.
+ but academic labour turnover and missing funding schemes make research software maintenance often rely on the (potentially unpaid) efforts of individuals.
 
 An RSE hub with long term core staff can partially solve this problem by taking over maintenance tasks.
 In order for this to be feasible two criteria need to be met:
@@ -472,11 +469,11 @@ \subsection{Module 9: Communication and Outreach}%
 The RSE unit should advocate the use of RSE techniques and best practices within their institutions actively to strengthen the local community and to reach out to new groups whenever possible.
 One possible additional measure in this regard is sharing the work done by the RSE unit and the network RSEs as part of, for instance, institutional research colloquia.
 
-Activities in category (iii), i.e., outreach to RSE initiatives outside the institution include contributing to events, position papers and the initiatives themselves, either directly from the RSE unit or by advertising at the institution and matchmaking with local RSEs interested in becoming active beyond their current tasks.
+Activities in category (iii), i.e., outreach to RSE initiatives outside the institution include contributing to events, position papers and the initiatives themselves, either directly from the RSE unit or by advertising at the institution and matchmaking with local RSEs interested in becoming active beyond their local tasks.
 The RSE unit thus contributes to the RSE communities on a regional, national or international level on the one hand and opens these up to the local RSEs and enables networking on the other hand.
 It organises the bidirectional exchange between the local and the global community and is the central hub for information coming both ways.
 
-\section{Existing Implementations}
+\section{Existing Implementations}%
 \label{sec:existing}
 
 \begin{figure}
@@ -487,7 +484,7 @@ \section{Existing Implementations}
 \end{figure}
 
 A number of successful RSE units have already been established in Germany and many more exist in other countries, especially the UK and the US\@.
-In order to understand the service portfolio of these existing RSE units, we conducted a survey that received a total of twelve responses from Germany, the UK and the US\@.
+In order to understand the service portfolio of these existing RSE units, we conducted a small survey that received a total of twelve responses from Germany, the UK and the US\@.
 We asked RSE units for the composition of their service portfolio --- the results are shown in Figure~\ref{fig:survey}.
 
 From the gathered data and the additional free text information of the participants we conclude that the service components that we have identified in Section~\ref{sec:vision} are indeed relevant for existing RSE units.
@@ -507,7 +504,7 @@ \section{Realisation Strategy}%
 We propose building blocks for individual realisation strategies for central institutional RSE units.
 We start by listing different possibilities for funding RSE positions at a research institution.
 Following that, we describe a potential transition pathway, starting from existing structures that have grown in research alliances such as \eg{} DFG-funded Collaborative Research Centres or also in research departments of an institution.
-This is complemented by discussing the opportunity of outsourcing RSE services and the challenging task of identifying and hiring suitable RSE candidates.
+This is complemented by discussions of the possibility of outsourcing RSE services and of the challenging task of identifying and hiring suitable RSE candidates.
 
 \subsection{Funding Possibilities}%
 \label{sec:funding}