Danish RSE

Danish RSE is a network for research software engineers from the Danish universities. The initial RSE network, established in 2022, grew from collaborations affiliated with DIGHUMLAB.

We are regionally located but internationally focused. Both in terms of the composition of our group and our perspective. We aim to build strong collaborations with colleagues in the Nordics (Nordic RSE) and around the world.

Are you a Research Software engineer, from a Danish University, matching the profile we welcome you to join the network. Please email us with your request and we will invite you to join our channel and future workshops,.

Who can join?

The Danish RSE network is open to anyone who fits the profile. We come from interdisciplinary backgrounds, and some will want a career focusing on the technical aspects of the field while others aim for an academic career. Currently, the focus of the Danish RSE network is Humanities and Social Sciences (SSH)

What we do

The RSE network aims to foster best practices for RSE units in terms of service, support, teaching and engineering by sharing knowledge and experiences. We collaborate, assist and inspire each other. We meet up to discuss challenges and ideas, and we stay in touch using dedicated channels

Goals and values

Danish RSE supports and works towards enabling diverse RSE career paths and recognition, acknowledgement of engineering tasks in research publications and Open Science and open source.

The first Danish RSE workshop

Recently a group of research software engineers from the Danish universities came together and formed the new cross-university network; Danish RSE.

RSE’s who had crossed paths before saw the need to come together and establish a more formel group where experiences and challenges working as a Research Software Engineer could be discussed.

That led to the establishment of the Danish RSE network. A network open to all Research Engineers from the Danish universities who fit the profile. The focus for now is Humanities and Social Sciences, and the network is supported by Dighumlab. Dighumlab will act as point of contact for RSE’s in Denmark and for other RSE networks in the Nordic countries.

The first Danish RSE workshop was held this summer and the plan is to do more workshops and keep in touch using a dedicated Slack channel to communicate about issues specifically related to RSE-issues.

RSE career management

Many RSE’s find career management challenging as the perception of their work within the universities holds them in a role of “support staff” with limited possibilities of advancement both as highly specialised technical staff and when they wish to do research themselves.

RSE units also find it hard to recruit and retain talented RSE’s as they are highly sought-after in the private sector.

Danish RSE hopes to impact the universities to recognise RSE’s and support their careers by enabling diverse career paths to match their skills and ambitions.

Ensuring co-authorship for RSE's

According to the Vancouver criteria for authorship all co-authors should:

provide substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND
draft the work or revise it critically for important intellectual content; AND
provide final approval of the version to be published; AND
agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Contributors who meet fewer than all 4 of the above criteria for authorship should not be listed as authors, but they should be acknowledged. The Danish RSE network will work to adapt the criteria specifically for the work performed by RSE’s. The goal is to provide Danish RSE’s with a guide and reduce conflict caused by vagueness.

Get in touch with Danish RSE

Questions or comments? Would you like to join the network and connect with other RSE’s from the Danish universities?

Please contact us via DIGHUMLAB with your request to join.