University of Manchester, Manchester, UK.
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, USA.
F1000Res. 2020 Oct 2;9:1192. doi: 10.12688/f1000research.25561.1. eCollection 2020.
: Software is now ubiquitous within research. In addition to the general challenges common to all software development projects, research software must also represent, manipulate, and provide data for complex theoretical constructs. Ensuring this process of theory-software translation is robust is essential to maintaining the integrity of the science resulting from it, and yet there has been little formal recognition or exploration of the challenges associated with it. : We thematically analyse the outputs of the discussion sessions at the Theory-Software Translation Workshop 2019, where academic researchers and research software engineers from a variety of domains, and with particular expertise in high performance computing, explored the process of translating between scientific theory and software. : We identify a wide range of challenges to implementing scientific theory in research software and using the resulting data and models for the advancement of knowledge. We categorise these within the emergent themes of design, infrastructure, and culture, and map them to associated research questions. : Systematically investigating how software is constructed and its outputs used within science has the potential to improve the robustness of research software and accelerate progress in its development. We propose that this issue be examined within a new research area of theory-software translation, which would aim to significantly advance both knowledge and scientific practice.
: 软件现在在研究中无处不在。除了所有软件开发项目共有的一般挑战外，研究软件还必须代表、操作和提供复杂理论结构的数据。确保这种理论-软件转换过程的稳健性对于维护从中产生的科学的完整性至关重要，但与之相关的挑战几乎没有得到正式的承认或探索。: 我们对 2019 年理论软件翻译研讨会的讨论环节的输出进行了主题分析，来自不同领域的学术研究人员和研究软件工程师，特别是在高性能计算方面具有专业知识，探讨了在科学理论和软件之间进行转换的过程。: 我们确定了在将科学理论实施到研究软件中以及使用由此产生的数据和模型来推进知识方面存在的各种挑战。我们将这些挑战分为设计、基础设施和文化这三个新出现的主题，并将其映射到相关的研究问题上。: 系统地研究软件在科学中的构建方式及其输出的使用方式有可能提高研究软件的稳健性，并加速其开发的进展。我们建议在理论软件翻译的新研究领域中研究这个问题，这将有助于在知识和科学实践方面取得重大进展。
