Policies and Good Practice in Research Software Development at Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden - Rossendorf e.V. (HZDR)

Research software is a central pillar in the scientific work in general, in the Helmholtz Association and in particular at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden - Rossendorf e.V. (HZDR). The software policy at the HZDR supports researchers in their independence and ability to act and is a framework that provides orientation. It gives advice and makes recommendations for the whole software lifecycle from development and documentation to publication and distribution as well as maintenance of the research software. The HZDR software policy is derived from a model policy provided by the Task Group Research Software of the Helmholtz Open Science Office. Adaptations were made, for example, regarding the recommended software quality ensurance measures based on the software application classes suggested by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) as well as the choice of Open-Source Software (OSS) licenses. A selection process and decision tree were defined to recommend the preferred use a specific set of OSS licenses at the HZDR. The introduction of a policy at HZDR and for each of the research centres in the Helmholtz Association involves not only behavioural but also cultural change in the whole research association and all related research groups. The overall objectives are to achieve better sustainability and higher quality in research software engineering leading to better verifiability, traceability and reproducibility of scientific results.