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How to publish research code FAIR?

Nowadays, research results are largely generated by self-developed software or code-based scripts. This code is regarded as an integral component of the scientist’s independent research.
The FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable) have become widespread in recent years since their definition by Wilkinson et al. (2016)1, especially in the context of research data and its sustainable use. The FAIR availability of code, however, lags behind scientific publication and research data publication. It therefore makes sense to publish code FAIR, especially in the open access area, so that it can be found and reused in the scientific community on the one hand and its authors receive appropriate “credits” when it is reused on the other.

Guideline of the FAIRagro Helpdesk

Publishing research code FAIR: a roadmap 2.0

Peschel et al. (2026): Publishing research code FAIR: a roadmap 2.0

For this reason, the FAIRagro Helpdesk published a roadmap for FAIR code publication2 at the beginning of 2025. Since then, the way code is created has changed considerably, above all through generative AI and coding agents. In autumn 2026, the Helpdesk therefore published a new version 2.0 of the roadmap3, which takes these developments into account in every step. The measures presented should be seen as current recommendations (as of autumn 2026). Things are changing rapidly in this field, and it is questionable which methods/tools/etc. will become standards in the future and which will not be pursued further due to a lack of support from the community.

Image Code Publication

Roadmap to the FAIR publication of scientific code. (Peschel et al. 2026)3

Contributors

Lucia Vedder ORCID icon, Florian Beyer ORCID icon, Paul Peschel ORCID icon

(Last Update: 2026-10-13)

How to cite this page?

Vedder, L., Beyer, F. & Peschel, P. (2026). Publishing Code FAIR. FAIRagro Knowledge Base. https://knowledgebase.fairagro.net/en/rdm/fair_code/. Under: CC BY 4.0.

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  1. Wilkinson, M., Dumontier, M., Aalbersberg, I. et al. (2016). The FAIR Guiding Principles for scientific data management and stewardship. Scientific Data 3, 160018. https://doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2016.18 ↩

  2. Beyer, F., Vedder, L., Singson, L. S., Sahwan, W. & Schmidt, M. (2025). Publishing research code FAIR - a roadmap. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14772749 ↩

  3. Peschel, P., Beyer, F., Möller, M., Singson, L. S., Vedder, L., Sahwan, W. & Schmidt, M. (2026). Publishing research code FAIR: a roadmap 2.0. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14772748 ↩↩