OSI Welcomes the Journal of Open Source Software as Affiliate Member -- The Open Source Initiative | PRLog

"he Open Source Initiative® (OSI), a global non-profit organization formed to educate about and advocate for the benefits of open source software and communities, announced that the Journal Of Open Source Software (JOSS), a peer-reviewed journal for open source research software packages, is now an OSI affiliate member.

JOSS is a response to the growing demand among academics to directly publish papers on research software. Typically, academic journals and papers related to software focus on lengthy descriptions of software (features and functionality), or original research results generated using the software. JOSS provides a means for researchers to directly publish their open source software as source code: the complete set of software with build, installation, test, and usage instructions. The primary purpose of a JOSS paper is to enable authors to receive citation credit for research software, while requiring minimal new writing. Within academia, it is critical for researchers to be able to measure the impact of their work. While there are many tools and metrics for tracking research outputs, JOSS fills the gap for software source code, which doesn't look like traditional academic research papers, allowing it to be treated as another form of research output. JOSS has a rigorous peer-review process designed to improve the quality of the software product, and a first-class editorial board experienced at building (and reviewing) high-quality research software. Review criteria assess the research statement of need, installation and build instructions, user documentation and contributing guidelines. The software is also required to have an OSI-approved license and a code of conduct. Authors must include examples of use, tests, and suitable API documentation. Reviewers and authors participate in an open and constructive review process focused on improving the quality of the software—and this interaction itself is subject to the JOSS Code of Conduct."