JuRSE

What is a Research Software Engineer?

There are multiple definitions of what exactly is a Research Software Engineer but here we're using the definitions from the UK and US RSE Associations.

'A Research Software Engineer combines professional software expertise with an intimate understanding of research'. (Society of Research Software Engineering)

'We like an inclusive definition of Research Software Engineers to encompass those who regularly use expertise in programming to advance research. This includes researchers who spend a significant amount of time programming, full-time software engineers writing code to solve research problems, and those somewhere in-between. We aspire to apply the skills and practices of software development to research to create more robust, manageable, and sustainable research software'. (US-RSE Definition)

And are you a Research Software Engineer?
If you answer yes to one or more of these questions below, even for only part of your role, you could consider yourself a Research Software Engineer, regardless of your actual job title.

• Are you employed to develop software for research?

• Do you tend to spend more time developing software than conducting research?

• Are you employed as a postdoctoral researcher, even though you predominantly work on software development?

• Are you the person who ‘does computing’ in your research group?

• Are you sometimes not named on research papers despite playing a fundamental part in developing the software used to create them?

• Do you feel that you typically lack the metrics needed to progress your academic career, like papers and conference presentations, despite having made a significant contribution through software?

What's in a job title?
At FZJ, we don’t expect or ask anyone to change their job title to Research Software Engineer in order to be part of this new FZJ-wide community. The RSE movement in the UK and US has led to individuals and teams adopting this job title and identifying themselves as RSEs and some may want to do this in the future.

Everyone is welcome to join the JuRSE Community who has an interest in and/or who practices Research Software Engineering with any job title.

If you answered yes to one or more of the above questions, or you'd like to know more about Researching Software Engineering and the community, head to our Community page and sign up to the mailing list, join the chat forum and come along to our JuRSE Open Hours.