Research Software
During a pilot project, the Open Science Office informs and counsels scientists on the use and development of research software. We are involved in the conception of technical services and guidelines for research software and collaborate closely with the Research Data Group of Leipzig University and the Digital Services Department of Leipzig University Library.
If you have any questions regarding research software, please contact us at: openscience@ub.uni-leipzig.de
By research software we mean software that researchers use during the research process to collect, transform, analyse and present research data and to plan these steps (see also the definitions of the DFG in Recommendations on research software and the working group Open Science of the Helmholtz Association).
Software has become a fundamental part of the research infrastructure and is firmly anchored in the practical everyday life of scientists. If you use software in the context of your research, we will be happy to advise you on the following topics:
- Citation of used software in your publications,
- Software for the qualitative social science research process,
- Software from the field of Digital Humanities.
Research software development in the context of research projects is becoming increasingly relevant and affects almost all scientific fields. We will answer your questions about licensing of software, but especially the licensing of open source software. Furthermore, we show you how to publish software, how to make it citable and reusable and how to cite other software projects in your work.
For a first, practical introduction we refer to the reusable guidelines on Open Source Development (German only) at the University Library of Leipzig.
Leipzig University Library publishes bibliographic data and digitised copies of public domain works under open licences or marks them as public domain. Access is possible via various interfaces. Furthermore, Leipzig University Library develops its own services and infrastructure preferably as open source software or participates in open source software projects. Both, the access to open source software and the access to open data via interfaces of the University Library are explained on the pages of UBLab.
University Library staff develop software mainly using open source licenses. For this purpose, guidelines for software developers have been created, which make it easier to get started and which can be freely used for own projects.
- DFG recommendations research software: The guidelines are aimed at scientists and science managers and at developers and users of research software. It focuses on the challenges and initial approaches to solutions in the development and use of research software and the offering of research software as a community service.
- Guidelines for the Open Source software development at Leipzig University Library: Reusable guide to software development at Leipzig University Library with information on licensing, archiving, citation, publication and project documentation of open source projects.
- Choose an open source license: An overview of common open source licenses and assistance in finding the right license for a project (see also the very detailed Joinup Licensing Assistant).
- Open Science MOOC: Open Research Software and Open Source: Freely available online course intended as an introduction to the topic of research software and open source from an open science perspective.
- TAPoR 3: TAPoR provides an overview of tools used in text analysis and retrieval.
- SoSciSo – Social Science Software: Overview of software tools for use in the different steps of the social science research process. Here, you also find a detailed list of common software tools for qualitative data analysis (e.g. MAXQDA, Atlas.ti etc.).
- List of reference management software: A detailed list of common software tools for reference management (e.g. Citavi, JabRef etc.).