Register your code in a community registry

Overview

Teaching: 0 min
Exercises: 0 min

Questions

• What are software registries?

• Why should I register my software

Objectives

• Understand what a software registry is

• Pick a relevant software registry

• Understand why you should register your software

Recommendation 3

Register your code in a community registry

Why registering your Software is important

Registering your software makes it easier for others to find it, particularly through the use of search engines such as Google. Community registries typically employ metadata to describe each software package. With metadata, search engines are able to get some idea of what the software is about, what problems it addresses, and what domain it is suited for. In turn, this helps improve the ranking of the software in the search results: better metadata means better ranking.

Community registries are like yellow pages for software

For others to make use of your work, they need to be able to find it first.

How to choose a software registry

Community registries come in many flavors. Choosing a software registry that is best suited for your needs can be tricky. Below we provide a few tips.

• Think about:

  • How much traffic does this community registry get?
  • Is this community registry targeting the audience we are trying to reach?
  • What metadata does this community registry offer?
• Ask your colleagues which registries they would use to look for software like yours.
• Have a look at the list of research software registries here.

What is metadata and how to find it

‘Metadata is data about data. In other words, it’s information that’s used to describe the data that’s contained in something like a web page, document, or file.’ https://www.lifewire.com/metadata-definition-and-examples-1019177

Metadata is sometimes described in the documentation of the registry. It is also possible to get them by installing a tool like the OpenLink Structured Data Sniffer. Alternatively, some search engines have a tool like the Google Structured Data Testing Tool to provide insight into how they perceive a given website.

Choose a software registry

Have a look at the list of software registries and pick a registry for your software.

• Which registry did you choose?
• Why did you choose that one?
• What kind of software is in this registry?
• Try to find documentation on how to register software in there.

Key Points

• Registring your code in a community registry makes your code findable for others.