New report highlights the scientific impact of open source software | STAT

"Yet despite their near-universal contributions to research and medicine, open source tools are often underfunded and difficult to support through mechanisms that support research, limiting their true potential — an issue CZI has been trying to tackle for the past five years....

Dario Taraborelli, a program officer at CZI, attributes the funding shortfall, in part, to the incentives system within the scientific community. Researchers are rewarded if their papers are highly cited or published in prestigious journals, often leading to career opportunities, research grants, and scientific awards.

Conversely, developing and maintaining software, even if it supports a wide body of research or meets the needs of broad scientific communities, rarely results in similar opportunities. And yet, sustainable funding for essential software tools that power scientific discovery is critical for infrastructure upkeep, community management, documentation, and regular code updates.

“We don’t value software, data, and methods in the same way we value papers, even though those resources empower millions of scientists,” said Taraborelli....