FAIRsharing record for: FAIR Principles for Research Software - Reusable

This FAIRsharing record describes: 'R: Software is both usable (can be executed) and reusable (can be understood, modified, built upon, or incorporated into other software)' acknowledges that the definitions of interoperability and reusability as defined by the FAIR Guiding Principles overlap when applied to software. To differentiate between the two, this principle - reusability (implicitly including usability) - here focuses on the ability of humans and machines to execute, inspect, and understand the software, so it can be modified, built upon, or incorporated into other software. Note that the general intent of these principles is that software is “executable in principle” - not
“guaranteed to execute”. Also, different aspects of reusability may best apply to different forms of software. The form in which it is made available changes the way it can be used. For instance, source code might be modifiable but not executable without specialist infrastructure; libraries available as binaries can be built on and incorporated into other software but not easily modified. In general, source code is the most reusable form of software. The concept of software quality overlaps with the FAIR4RS Principles, particularly reusability, but is not directly addressed by them. Similar to openness, software quality is beneficial to making software FAIR but not required.