Machine-Actionable Metadata for Software and Software Management Plans for NFDI

Abstract

Research data is on its way to be recognized as a first-class citizen in research; however, and despite its importance for science, software still has a long way to go. Recent initiatives are paving the way, including FAIR for Research Software and Software Management Plans. A step further towards machine-actionability is adding a structured metadata layer. Here we discuss some metadata elements useful to represent software and integrate it into management plans, and how it could be of benefit for NFDI.