Scientific Software Communities

The articles in this issue provide some examples of how a more considered focus on the software development process can feed the development of science. Two different approaches to reproducible software practices, an approach on maintaining documentation for important base libraries, and a discussion on ways of extending a software library’s functionality to keep it relevant as a community evolves over time. These topics challenge the boundaries of what software can be for an individual and for a community. The authors expose eaknesses in our state-of-the-art practices with an eye towards a sustainable future. By using these techniques, we avoid numerous withdrawn results—a current crisis due to reliance on software without verification.