Developing Scientific Software

Call for Articles

Publication date: July/August 2008
Submission deadline: 9 January 2008

IEEE Software seeks submissions for a special issue on the topic of scientific software development. By "scientific software development," we mean the development of software that directly supports the work of scientists in attempting to push back the boundaries of domains which are both complex and poorly understood. We take a broad view of scientists to include mathematicians and applied scientists such as engineers, as well as physicists, chemists, biologists, etc.

Many of the recent advances in science have been dependent on software. Because of the complex nature of the science underlying the software, much scientific software is written either by scientists themselves or by multidisciplinary teams of software engineers and scientists. In the former case, scientists face the challenge of knowing little about software engineering beyond coding. In addition, they often work within a culture in which the skills and knowledge required to develop software are devalued. They thus fall into the category of "professional end-user developers." In the latter, the multidisciplinary teams face the challenges of different cultures (science and software development) and communication. The aim of this issue is to explore the particular challenges facing scientific software development and the ways by which these challenges might be addressed.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to

• Case studies of scientific software development
• Analyses, grounded in practice, of the
• particular characteristics of, and problems facing, scientists as professional end-user developers
• particular characteristics of scientific software development
• particular characteristics of, and problems facing, multidisciplinary development teams comprising software engineers and scientists.
• Discussions of tools, techniques, and strategies specifically designed to support scientific software development. We are not interested here in purely technical papers, but rather in papers which ground a discussion in the actuality of scientific software development.
• Discussion of how tools, techniques, and strategies commonly deployed by software engineers might be usefully deployed, perhaps with some modification, by professional end-user developers. Again, we expect such a discussion to be grounded in the actuality of scientific software development.

If you are unsure whether your article fits in with the focus of the special issue, please contact Judith Segal (j.a.segal@open.ac.uk) or Chris Morris (c.morris@dl.ac.uk)

Manuscripts must not exceed 5,400 words including figures and tables, which count for 200 words each. Submissions in excess of these limits may be rejected without refereeing. The articles we deem within the theme's scope will be peer-reviewed and are subject to editing for magazine style, clarity, organization, and space. We reserve the right to edit the title of all submissions.

For author guidelines and submission details, please visit our Author Center (http://www.computer.org/software/author.htm) or contact thepublications coordinator (software@computer.org). Submit your article via the Computer Society's Electronic Submission System(http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/cs-ieee) by 9 January 2008. Only Postscript or PDF files can be submitted for review. Specify that you are submitting it for the "Developing Scientific Software" special issue.

For more information, contact the Guest Editors:

Judith Segal (j.a.segal@open.ac.uk)
The Open University

Chris Morris (c.morris@dl.ac.uk)