Merge branch 'main' into survey-results

Author: dokempf

paper.tex

@@ -39,16 +39,41 @@ \section{Introduction}
 It has been established that most research requires research software for its results [REF].
 To solve pressing research challenges, better software is crucial [REF].
 During the past decade, it gained ever-growing attention and is becoming accepted as a research result on its own.
-The term “Research software” is still defined somewhat differently within the community.
-We follow here the definition: “Research Software includes source code files, algorithms, scripts, computational workflows and executables that were created during the research process or for a research purpose”, with full definition and discussion provided in~\autocite{Gruenpeter2021}.
+%We follow here the definition: “Research Software includes source code files, algorithms, scripts, computational workflows and executables that were created during the research process or for a research purpose”, with full definition and discussion provided in~\autocite{Gruenpeter2021}.
 
 The number of people developing software in academia is constantly rising [REF].
 Research Software Engineering are actions necessary to create, adapt or maintain Research Software or train others to do so.
 These actions are very diverse and so are the environments they are performed in.
-We refer by Research Software Engineer (RSE) to persons who regularly perform those actions as part of their work.
-We refer by researcher to all others involved in research, those that are at most sporadically performing RSE actions.
 This position paper focuses on (groups of) research software engineers and researchers who require RSE for their research.
 
+\subsection{Terminology}
+Depending on the national research
+environments and processes that readers are familiar with, the notion of the terms \emph{software} and \emph{research} might differ.
+The term “Research software” is also defined somewhat differently within the community.
+Therefore, to avoid ambiguities, we define them as follows:\\
+\textbf{Software:}\\
+Source code, documentation, tests, executables
+and all other artefacts that are created by humans during the development process
+that are necessary to understand its purpose.\\
+\textbf{Research software:}\\
+Foundational algorithms, the software itself,
+as well as scripts and computational workflows that were created
+during the research process or for a research purpose, across all domains of research.
+This definition is broader than in~\autocite{FAIR4RS} and is the outcome of a recent
+discussion in~\autocite{Gruenpeter2021}.\\
+\textbf{Research software engineers:}\\
+People who
+create or improve research software and/or the structures that the software interacts with
+in the computational ecosystem of a research domain.
+They are highly skilled team members who may also choose to conduct their own research as
+part of their role.
+However, we also recognise that many RSEs have chosen specifically to focus on a technical
+role as an alternative to a traditional research role because they enjoy and wish to focus
+on the development of research software.\\
+\textbf{Researchers:}\\
+We refer by researcher to all others involved in research or in research supporting organizations as \eg libraries,
+hence those that are at most sporadically performing RSE actions.
+
 \section{Motivation}
 
 In this chapter, we provide motivation for dedicated RSE groups in German research organizations.
@@ -74,6 +99,8 @@ \subsection{Tasks - Why do central software services make sense?}
 
 Cite for international comparison \autocite{Cosden2022} Princeton RSE group model
 
+
+
 \subsection{Structure}
 
 A central RSE team on long-term contracts will act as a knowledge hub due to their experience in and support of several disciplines as well as established contacts within the organisation.
@@ -263,7 +290,7 @@ \subsection{Development Services}
 
 While all of the above development services can be flexibly performed either at the RSE hub or its spokes, there are advantages of having a hub in the process:
 It allows building up highly specialized technical expertise with a long term perspective and reuse it across the entire institution.
-Examples of topics that would benefit from such expertise pooling are \eg mobile app development (University of Manchester: https://research-it.manchester.ac.uk/services/mobile-development-service-mds/ - use as \#SuccessStory?) and UI/UX development.
+Examples of topics that would benefit from such expertise pooling are \eg mobile app development and UI/UX development.
 
 RSE departments that offer development services at all scales have proven to be a success story at many research institutions and have rapidly grown in size due to the influx of third party funding.
 Notable examples are \eg Manchester [REF], Notre-Dame [REF], STANFORD, Princeton~\autocite{Cosden2022}.
@@ -272,6 +299,14 @@ \subsection{Development Services}
 Founded in January 2017, the Research Computing department of Princeton University has experienced a tremendous growth from the initial two FTEs to a total of 18 FTEs in the span of five years~\autocite{Cosden2022}.
 This growth is based on a continuous influx of new funded projects once successful projects showcase the additional value of RSE services to researchers.
 
+[Success Story]
+The University of Manchester Software and Data Science group has successfully established specialized development services within their institution:
+The "Mobile Development Service" \autocite{manchester_mobile} team consists of RSEs that focus solely on developing and deploying mobile apps.
+Without a central RSE department to anchor such specialized expertise, it would probably be infeasible to establish such a service.
+Also, having this expertise centralized allows for synergies in the deployment procedure for mobile apps:
+The RSE department can create institutional accounts with the app stores and manage the time consuming deployment process including hard-to-setup procedures like code signing.
+Besides the technical benefits of this central deployment procedure, the institution will also benefit from the increased visibility and potentially be able to build a brand with its technological output.
+
 \subsection{Teaching Services}
 
 A central RSE department can provide or organize training for researchers and decentralized RSEs in an institution.

positionpaper.bib

@@ -30,4 +30,9 @@ @misc{fair_data_maturity_model_working_group_2020
   version      = {1.0},
   doi          = {10.15497/rda00050},
   url          = {https://doi.org/10.15497/rda00050}
-}
+}
+
+@online{manchester_mobile,
+  title={Mobile Development Service (MDS)},
+  url={https://research-it.manchester.ac.uk/services/mobile-development-service-mds/}
+}