Previously Discussed Topics (PDT) is a resource of discussion topics (and their associated speed blogs) that have already occurred on topics related to Software Sustainability at Collaborations Workshops and related events (e.g. WSSSPE). These are useful background for future discussions on these or related topics. 

Advocacy

• How can we help ensure research software is treated as a first-class research output?

  • NULL, not void (11 April 2016, CW16)

  • Credit and recognition for research software: Current state of practice and outlook (26 November 2018, WSSSPE6.1)

  • Making Software a First-Class Citizen in Research (28 November 2018, WSSSPE6.1)

• How do we persuade funders to support software maintenance?

  • How do we persuade funder to support software maintenance? (31 March 2020, CW20)

  • A path to the light: stopping ‘secret’ software, managing maintenance and evidencing impact (30 March 2021, CW21)

Best practices

• How can we motivate better practice in Research Software Engineering?

  • Why research software engineers should have permanent contracts (11 December 2017, WSSSPE5.1)

  • Overcoming Entry Barriers to Motivate Better Practice in Research Software Engineering (14 December 2017, WSSSPE5.1)

  • Establishing RSE groups at different levels (23 May 2018, CW18)

• What are the best channels for promoting good research practices?

  • Are you promoting good practices for open research? (31 March 2020, CW20)

• How do we improve research software usability for non-developers?

  • How do we improve research software usability for non-developers? (5 April 2016, CW16)

• How can we promote/encourage software best practices in research?

  • Best Practices in sustainable software architectures (22 May 2017, CW17)

  • Encouraging good software development practice in research teams (13 December 2017, WSSSPE5.1)

  • Overcoming barriers to adopting software best practices in research (7 December 2017, WSSSPE5.1)

  • Are you promoting good practices for open research? (31 March 2020, CW20)

  • How do you get people to follow best practice as part of their workflow instead of after the fact? (31 March 2020, CW20)

  • Implementing FAIR for research software: attitudes, advantages and challenges (part one) (30 March 2021, CW21)

  • Implementing FAIR for research software: attitudes, advantages and challenges (part two) (30 March 2021, CW21)

  • Nudging towards a better default for open source project ownership (30 March 2021, CW21)

  • Opening the door to new contributors in open source projects (22 June 2022, CW22)

Career Paths

• What career paths exist in research software engineering and academia?

  • Evolutions in the discussion of RSE career paths (11 April 2016, CW16)

  • Rethinking career paths across academia (19 May 2017, CW17)

• How can we implement reward structures for open research practices?

  • Incentives for good research software practices (31 March 2020, CW20)

Citation

• How should we provide citation information?

  • A standard format for CITATION files (12 December 2017, WSSSPE5.1)

Community

• How can research software communities help to enhance sustainability, reproducibility and software quality?

  • Carrot and stick approaches to promoting research software as a community (31 March 2020, CW20)

  • Best practices for building an institutionally based community (31 March 2020, CW20)

  • Six tips for building communities of practice (30 March 2021, CW21)

  • Coding Clubs For Research Software Communities: Questions to Consider (Part One) (30 March 2021, CW21)

  • Coding Clubs For Research Software Communities: Questions to Consider (Part Two) (30 March 2021, CW21)

  • Talk to each other! (30 March 2021, CW21)

• How can we organise events to help develop and grow our research software community?

  • Research software communities: organising events to help develop and grow your community (18 June 2019, CW19)

  • Holding the best meeting you ever attended (1 July 2022, CW22)

• What challenges has Covid-19 presented to our community?

  • Bootstrapping a development team during the time of crisis (31 March 2020, CW20)

  • Challenges, solutions, and advantages of growing communities online (aka be upfront about the creepy stuff!) (31 March 2020, CW20)

  • Evolving the office work culture (30 March 2021, CW21)

Data

• How can we make sure we are using suitable third-party data in our work?

  • Can you trust seductive data? (30 May 2017, CW17) 

• How should people get data from software repositories?

  • What are the formats, tools and techniques for harvesting metadata from software repositories? (30 March 2021, CW21)

• How do we improve data management in machine learning?

  • How do we improve data management in machine learning? (30 March 2021, CW21)

Diversity

• How can we Improve diversity in research software projects and events?

  • Improving diversity in research software projects and events (1 June 2017, CW17)

• How can we organise events to help develop and grow our research software community?

  • Research software communities: organising events to help develop and grow your community (18 June 2019, CW19)

Documentation

• What do we need to consider when documenting complex objects?

  • Abandon hope, we are archiving things we can’t use: considerations for documenting complex objects (29 November 2018, WSSSPE6.1)

• What are best practices for research software documentation?

  • What are best practices for research software documentation? (21 June 2019, CW19)

Funding

• Writing grants related to research software engineering

  • Visibility of Research Software Engineers in research funding (20 June 2022, CW22)

GLAM sector

• What support is needed for RSE and sustainable software in the Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums (GLAM) sector

  • How to be more GLAM-RS (20 July 2022, CW22)

Hybrid working

• How do we ensure hybrid working is inclusive to the early careers

  • Hybrid working: how can we avoid the “worst of both worlds” for early-career researchers/academics? (16 January 2023, CW22)

Management

• What is the role of a Research Software Project Manager?

  • The Research Software Project Manager (4 December 2017, WSSSPE5.1)

• What do agile methods offer to scientific software development?

  • Using Agile methods in Scientific Software Development (5 December 2018, WSSSPE6.1)

• What ethical considerations should be taken into account in open source governance?

  • Ethical considerations for your open source governance (7 July 2022, CW22)

Mentorship

• How could a mentor help me?

  • The inevitable abyss: find mentors who will help you get out (6 April 2016, CW16)

Open Science

• What is Open Science and how do we promote its importance?

  • Steps to start liberating your science (12 April 2016, CW16)

• What resources exist to make our data open, and what’s needed next?

  • Making data open: resources, gaps and incentives (24 May 2017, CW17) 

  • Privacy and trust issues in IoT and open data (29 May 2017, CW17)

Organisational Aspects

• How can Universities strike a balance between research IT and enterprise IT?

  • Research IT / Enterprise IT (31 May 2017, CW17)

Quality

• What does quality in research software development mean?

  • 9 steps for quality research software (5 April 2016, CW16)

• Why are software metrics important and how do we measure them?

  • Software metrics—why and how? (9 May 2017, CW17)

• Why is it important to think about code review?

  • Constructive code critique (12 May 2017, CW17)

Reproducibility

• What are the reproducibility and collaboration challenges in research?

  • What do you tell your PhD student three years before they leave … (6 April 2016, CW16) 

  • Towards Reproducibility in Research Software (6 December 2017, WSSSPE5.1)

  • Sharing reproducible research – minimum requirements and desirable features (22 May 2018, CW18)

  • Reproducibly producing data from workflows, pipelines and coupled models (19 June 2019, CW19)

  • Reproducibility and collaboration challenges in interactive/exploratory research (1 July 2019, CW19)

Research software

• What are best Practices in sustainable software architectures?

  • Best Practices in sustainable software architectures (22 May 2017, CW17)

• How do I choose my research software stack?

  • Decisions decisions decisions: Things to be aware of when choosing your research software stack (11 May 2017, CW17)

• How can we find what software has been used in a research project?

  • Looking for software use in research (5 December 2017, WSSSPE5.1)

• How do we evaluate research software to meet different requirements?

  • How do we evaluate research software to meet different requirements? (27 November 2018, WSSSPE6.1)

• How do we make legacy software more sustainable?

  • Maintaining your legacy - tips for making legacy code sustainable (31 March 2020, CW20)

• Code Review

  • Identifying and overcoming obstacles to adopting code review (17 August 2022, CW22)
  • Aim for understandability if you want to write good research software (4 July 2022, CW22)

Sustainability

• Which software should be sustained, and which shouldn't?

  • Some software should be sustained, and some shouldn’t. But how can we choose, what is the cost of sustaining it, and what is the cost of letting it pass away? (13 December 2018, WSSSPE6.1)

• How can RSEs and similar educate and engage with busy PIs regarding software sustainability?

  • How to engage Research Group Leaders in sustainable software practices (31 March 2020, CW20)

Testing

• How can I test my scientific software?

  • Five failed tests for scientific software (24 May 2018, CW18)

Tools

• What tools are available to support metadata creation and curation of software?

  • Software metadata creation and curation (2 July 2019, CW19)

• How can I support distributed team work with collaborative and decentralised tools?

  • Collaborate and don't die trying (11 April 2016, CW16)

Training

• How can we train people in software sustainability?

  • How do you teach sustainable software practices 101? (6 April 2016, CW16)

  • Sustainable Domain-Specific Training (4 December 2018, WSSSPE6.1)

  • Best practices for creating training materials (28 June 2019, CW19)

  • What does training in software sustainability look like? (4 July 2019, CW19)

  • Top tips for teaching what's REALLY important (30 March 2021, CW21)

• Intermediate skills

  • How do you help build intermediate software engineering skills and help people go beyond the basics? (30 March 2021, CW21)

  • Carpentries: Beyond the basics (29 June 2022, CW22)