The Research Software Policy (RSP) Forum, convened by ReSA, is compiling national policies to share as resources and examples that can support governments in developing, strengthening, or updating their research software policies.
We collect policies around research software (or open source software) that govern the creation, maintenance, acquisition, use, distribution and management of software within their environment, as well as to recognise such work. Software policies might cover multiple aspects of management to ensure legal, ethical, and secure use of software, as well as the protection of intellectual property rights, and can discuss how software work is used in hiring, evaluation, and promotion.
In some cases, research software is addressed within broader frameworks such as open science or research data policies. Additional valuable resources include the Amsterdam Declaration on Funding Research Software Sustainability (ADORE.software) and its complementary toolkit, as well as presentations from the 2022 Science Europe Conference on Open Science – specifically, Implementation of policies on research software by Neil Chue Hong, and Landscape of policies around research software by Michelle Barker.
For institutional-level research software policies, refer to ReSA’s dedicated collection. Further information on national and international policies that support research software can be found on our Guidelines page and in our blog post.
You can add your country’s policy to the database through a comment in the Google sheet.