The Metascience and Research Software (MaRS) Forum is a collaboration of metascience groups, communities, and organisations committed to supporting research software, and those who develop it, as fundamental and vital to research. Research software metascience aims to understand implications of research software on the research ecosystem, particularly on the research process, and could include:

• The impact of research software policy or funding on the research ecosystem (e.g., representation, carbon budgets)
• The impact of research software and associated factors (e.g., training, careers) on the research ecosystem
• The impact of research software disruptors (e.g., AI coding assistants,) on the research ecosystem

Software has become an essential constituent of research and research software is starting to be seen as an equal partner of research data in key international policy documents such as UNESCO and the OECD. However, support and recognition of the importance of research software and the people who develop and maintain it, has failed to keep pace with the scale of use of research software in research.

The MaRS Forum provides a formal mechanism for members to share practices and consider how to individually and collectively address common challenges to achieve the significant cultural change needed across the research sector globally. It aims to address topics such as:

• Landscape analysis of existing metascience on research software, to identify opportunities for consolidation, and gaps that need filling
• Approaches to creating research software as a research area
• Increasing awareness of research on research software
• Metascience publishing opportunities (or lack thereof)

For further information, please refer to the Terms of Reference.

Membership is open to stakeholders that conduct research to understand implications of research software on the research ecosystem, particularly on the research process.

Examples of/types:

• Research software metascience groups (e.g., International Research Software Engineering Research (IRSER))
• Research software communities that undertake metascience (e.g., Software Sustainability Institute)
• Broader metascience organisations (e.g., Research on Research Institute (RoRI))

Members can suggest other organisations that support research software metascience to join, or potential participants can contact ReSA for information on joining.