ASCL News
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Bruce Berriman is blogging about ADASS on his Astronomy Computing Today site; his first installment is already available. And Peter Teuben is posting photos from the event (and Calgary). You can also follow the events on Twitter, hashtag #astroADASS.
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Abstract: The Astrophysics Source Code Library (ASCL) is a free online registry of codes used in astronomy research; it currently contains over 900 codes and is indexed by ADS. The ASCL has recently moved a new infrastructure into production. The new site provides a true database for the code entries and integrates the WordPress news and information pages and the discussion forum into one site. Previous capabilities are retained and permalinks to ascl.net continue to work. The site offers more functionality and flexibility than the previous site, is easier to maintain, and offers new possibilities for collaboration. This presentation covers these recent changes to the ASCL.
Authors: Robert Hanisch (National Institute of Standards and Technology)
Alice Allen (Astrophysics Source Code Library)
Bruce Berriman (Infrared Processing and Analysis Center, California Institute of Technology)
Kimberly Duprie (Space Telescope Science Institute)
Jessica Mink (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics)
Robert Nemiroff (Michigan Technological University)
Lior Shamir (Lawrence Technological University)
Keith Shortridge (Australian Astronomical Observatory)
Mark Taylor (University of Bristol)
Peter Teuben (University of Maryland)
John Wallin (Middle Tennessee State University) -
The 24th Astronomical Data Analysis Software and Systems (ADASS) meeting starts this evening at the Westin Hotel in Calgary, Canada. Talks start tomorrow afternoon; the opening sessions are focused on Big Data Challenges, which is such a big topic it has to be continued on Monday morning.
Though the ASCL editors are not attending ADASS this year, most of the Advisory Committee is (Peter Teuben, Bruce Berriman, Bob Hanisch, Jessica Mink, Keith Shortridge, and Mark Taylor) and Bob Hanisch has a poster on the ASCL's recent changes to hang.
You can follow ADASS on Twitter
@astroADASS, and tomorrow, we'll post the ASCL poster here. -
The ASCL will have a poster at the upcoming ADASS meeting in Calgary on the recent enhancements to the site.
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Peter Teuben moderated today's BoF, which asked participants to brainstorm ideas for dealing with three categories of concerns: factors which inhibit code sharing, factors which encourage sharing, and overall community issues. The questions were in yesterday's blog post, along with a link to the introductory slides for the session. One of the questions posed was not selected for discussion; another was proposed by participant William O'Mullane (what tools are available for sharing code?).
Each discussion group discussed one of eight questions; people were given the opportunity to move to another group for a second discussion. Scribes captured the ideas and comments of participants; the resulting documents can be found by following the links below.
My thanks to Jessica Mink, Kimberly DuPrie, Omar Laurino, Mark Taylor, Bruce Berriman, Bob Hanisch, Kai Polsterer, and William O'Mullane for scribing, to Nuria Lorente for tweeting about the session, and to Peter Teuben for his leadership!
Please feel free to add your own comments directly in the documents!
Messy code
Google docExpectations of support
Google docUniversity policies
Google docRecognition by citation
Google docImpact
Google docJournals and funding agencies
Google docCommunity at large
Google docTools for sharing code
Google doc -
... are being posed in the Ideas for Advancing Code Sharing (or A Different Kind of Hack Day) Birds of a Feather (BoF) session at ADASS. The eight questions ask how to deal with three categories of concerns: factors which inhibit sharing, factors which encourage sharing, and overall community issues. The questions are below; do you have answers to them? Please share them if you do!
The introductory slides for the BoF are available online. We will post what comes out of the discussions shortly after the BoF.
Mitigating inhibitors
How do we encourage release even if the code is "messy"?
How do we reduce expectations of support when coders don’t want to support code and still encourage code release?
How can universities be convinced to change policies which prohibit software publication?Increasing incentives
What can we do to encourage citations for codes?
Beyond citations, what can we do to give code authors recognition for writing and releasing their software?
How can we measure the impact of a code on research and its value to the community?Community factors
What roles might journal publishers and funding agencies have in furthering code release, and how can the community influence them to take on that role?
What else can we do to have code release recognized as an essential part of research reproducibility -
When Alice asked me if I'd like to present a poster at this year's ADASS I jumped at the chance: After all, it was Alice's poster and presentation at ADASS XXI that prompted me to volunteer for ASCL. Also, I don't often get the opportunity to exercise my creative side, and what better way to give it a workout than to create a poster that will be seen by millions (ok, hundreds) of people. However once I started working on the poster I realized that my creative side had atrophied a bit due to disuse. With Alice's coaching ("You know you can use more than one color!") I managed to pull together a poster that I hope you find informative and eye-catching without being too wordy. If I'm really lucky I might even be able to snare another ASCL volunteer.
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The ASCL is participating in ADASS in the following ways:
- Associate editor Kimberly DuPrie is presenting a poster called ASCL: Incite to Cite!
- Advisory Chairman Peter Teuben is moderating the Birds of a Feather (BoF) session Ideas for Advancing Code Sharing (or A Different Kind of Hack Day); other members of the Advisory Committee will also be there
- And I'm presenting an oral presentation titled The Astrophysics Source Code Library: Where do we go from here?
Not going to ADASS but want to participate in the BoF session? We'd love to have your input and ideas. We'll be running a Twitter feed running throughout the BoF (follow @asclnet). What else might work for you?
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We had a display table at ADASS in addition to participating in a Birds of a Feather (BoF) session and passed out a few documents, showed a few slides, had a couple glasses of wine... Cannot share the wine, but can share some of the files:
ASCL flyer (PDF)
BoF talking points handout (.docx)
BoF discussion questions presentation (.pptx)
Request for suggestions for improving the ASCL (.pptx)
Papers of possible interest to astronomical software users (.docx) (also available online)
