Making excellence a habit
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In a new policy paper, the professional body argues that the lack of widely accepted software development standards in scientific research has allowed for the 'politicised' undermining of confidence in computational modelling, including in high-profile models informing COVID-19 policy.
Dr Bill Mitchell OBE, Director of Policy at BCS, said it is clear that 'our understanding and use of science relies as much on the underlying code as on the underlying research'.
He continued: 'We welcome the Government's commitment to following science in developing policy responses to the coronavirus pandemic. We support the use of computational modelling in exploring possible outcomes of policy decisions, such as investigating which lockdown measures are likely to have the greatest public health benefits.
'At the same time we consider that — at present — the quality of the software implementations of scientific models appear to rely too much on the individual coding practices of the scientists (who are not computer scientists) who develop them, rather than professional software development practices being publicly evidenced against appropriate standards.'
Dr Mitchell added: 'We believe professional software development standards should be followed when implementing computational models for conducting scientific research where that research could be relied on by policy makers and which could have critical consequences for society, such as for example healthcare, criminal justice or climate change. The underlying software code should also be open sourced in line with government guidance.'
BCS will approach experts across the sector to discuss how to professionalise software development practice in scientific research.
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