Recognizing Software as a Critical Component in Open Science: Advancing an Interoperable, Community-Driven Vision for Infrastructures

Software source code is crucial in Open Science, representing executable knowledge essential for advancing research. Yet, it often receives insufficient attention in open repositories for metadata management and archival strategies. This panel discussion will convene experts from various infrastructures who have crafted solutions tailored to the unique aspects of software as a digital object, including scholarly repositories, publisher platforms and aggregators. Representatives from HAL, Episciences, Dagstuhl, swMath and more will participate. We will discuss the archival of source code in Software Heritage, the universal source code archive, the application of the CodeMeta vocabulary for describing software and the use of the Software Hash Identifier (SWHID) for accurate referencing. Additionally, we will showcase how initiatives like European projects, such as FAIRCORE4EOSC, FAIR-IMPACT and EVERSE and collaborations with the SciCodes Consortium are creating vital connections between scholarly infrastructures. This panel will discuss both the advancements and the challenges faced, and will suggest practical steps that institutions, publishers, and researchers can take through collaboration, guided by a community-driven vision. We aim to deepen the understanding of software's role in research and its necessary recognition, encouraging wider adoption of best practices in academia to foster a more collaborative and inclusive scholarly environment.