Helmholtz Software Quality Indicator now in helmholtz.software

We are excited to announce the latest update of helmholtz.software which adds the ability to evaluate research software based on the Helmholtz Software Quality Indicator.

Short summary

• Software can now be evaluated using the Helmholtz Software Quality Indicator
• Helmholtz associates can now create accounts in helmholtz.software
• A bug affecting the citation box has been fixed
• Get in touch with us in our Matrix chat #helmholtz.software:helmholtz.cloud

Helmholtz Software Quality Indicator

Research software, and it's importance in the scientific landscape, has received increasing attention over the past few years. With the upcoming PoF V (Program-Oriented Funding) period in 2028, Helmholtz acknowledges this development and plans to treat research software and research data as research outputs that are equally important as journal publications. This paradigm shift will allow researchers to receive acknowledgement work that previously wen unrecognised.

But which software and which data should be counted as scientific output? This question had been addressed since 2022 by the Task Group Helmholtz Quality Indicators for Data and Software Products, coordinated by the Helmholtz Open Science Office. The research software sub group has been developing a mechanism to determine software eligibility using an approach based on the COBIT maturity model. The result is a criteria catalogue based on six dimensions:

• Findable
• Accessible
• Interoperable
• Reusable
• Scientific Basis
• Technical Basis

For each of these dimensions, specific criteria have been defined that are used to determine software quality. Research software has to gain a predefined minimum score in each dimension to be countable. More details about the methodology can be found on the official task group page (accessible for Helmholtz members). The indicator will be applied for the first time to research software published in 2026.

For software maintainers

Starting today, you can evaluate your software using the task group's criteria catalogue directly on helmholtz.software. You will now find a "Reporting" menu entry in your software edit view, which will guide you to the evaluation:

When you start an evaluation for a specific year, you will be guided through the process:

For further details, please refer to our user documentation, which provides a step-by-step guide to evaluating your code.

For reporters and librarians in the research centres

The Helmholtz RSD will also provide functionality for reporters at individual research centres to collect evaluation results for PoF reporting. We are currently developing this feature and plan to release it later this year. Please contact us via support@hifis.net if you wish to learn more or if you are interested in establishing helmholtz.software as your official tool for evaluating research software.

Login now possible for every Helmholtz associate

With the current update we have enabled login for all Helmholtz associates. Previously, access was restricted to employees at Helmholtz centres. Now, visiting scientists or PhD students are also permitted to create accounts on helmholtz.software.

Further fixes

We have further resolved issues with the releases scraper that previously caused releases to be missed or citation boxes to disappear.

Get in touch with us

We now have a Matrix chat room. If you have questions, found bugs or want to get in touch with us, join us: #helmholtz.software:helmholtz.cloud