Elsevier Announces the Launch of SoftwareX

AMSTERDAM, April 22, 2015 /PRNewswire/ --

Open access journal SoftwareX publishes cross-discipline, peer-reviewed software that has been developed during the research process 

Elsevier, a world-leading provider of scientific, technical and medical information products and services, announces the launch of a new concept journal, SoftwareX. The online-only journal provides a dedicated publishing home for all software which fundamentally impacts the research process, but traditionally would not be acknowledged or reported on systematically. SoftwareX is an open access journal that publishes peer-reviewed open source software.

As conducting research across disciplines becomes more computer-driven, scientists increasingly need to develop code, software and other computational tools to help them get through various elements and stages of their research. With the launch of SoftwareX, this software can now get the recognition as a scientific publication and as such will also be systematically organized, curated, indexed and shared through research databases. This allows for the wider scientific community to find, evaluate, credit, reuse or build on valuable software development that has been previously done.

The journal forms an outlet, dissemination channel and sharing platform for software applications and the articles include summaries of where the software has already been used and its impact. Articles published in SoftwareX also display software metadata such as the version, operating system, programming language and the license under which the software is published. All software will be available within the journal's repository on GitHub. The journal will be under the editorship of Dr. Kate Keahey, Argonne National Laboratory, USA, Dr. Frank Seinstra, Netherlands eScience Center, The Netherlands, and Dr. David Wallom, Oxford e-Research Centre, University of Oxford, UK

Dr. Frank Seinstra, Co-Editor-in-Chief of SoftwareX, said, "Many of today's scientific breakthroughs would not have happened without the availability of research software. It is therefore surprising to see that research software, despite the huge impact it may have on a wide research community, traditionally is not published, and hence is not citable, and not available to other researchers to build on. This not only hinders the advancement of science, but also the career paths of software developers, which the research community has become so heavily dependent on. With the launch of SoftwareX we want to change this, providing a central outlet and home for this work."

Eleonora Presani, Publisher at Elsevier said, "Software developers have always struggled to get academic recognition for their work, often reverting to proxies like regular papers, manuals or books to share their software. Until now, software development has not always been treated as a full academic product. With the launch of SoftwareX we aim to change this, not only giving it the credit it deserves, but also to help researchers alike- nobody likes to repeat work. We believe that publishing software should be an integral part of the scientific communication ecosystem."

For more information go to: Elsevier Connect

The first articles are now available on ScienceDirect. For more information and to submit an article, go to: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/softwarex

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About Open Access Publishing at Elsevier 

Elsevier has been providing open access publishing options since 2005. Today, researchers can choose to publish open access in over 1,600 established peer-reviewed journals as well as over 250 full open access journals and these numbers will continue to grow rapidly. All of Elsevier's open access publications have been peer reviewed, ensuring that the broader community not only reads the latest research but that it is factual, original and of the highest quality and ethical standards. For more information about Elsevier's open access program, visit http://www.elsevier.com/openaccess.

About Elsevier 

Elsevier is a world-leading provider of information solutions that enhance the performance of science, health, and technology professionals, empowering them to make better decisions, deliver better care, and sometimes make groundbreaking discoveries that advance the boundaries of knowledge and human progress. Elsevier provides web-based, digital solutions - among them ScienceDirect, Scopus, Elsevier Research Intelligence and ClinicalKey - and publishes over 2,500 journals, including The Lancet and Cell, and more than 33,000 book titles, including a number of iconic reference works. Elsevier is part of RELX Group plc, a world-leading provider of information solutions for professional customers across industries. http://www.elsevier.com

Media contacts
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Elsevier
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SOURCE Elsevier