Challenges in Selecting Software to be Reused

Abstract: This is a position paper for Sharing, Re-Use and Circulation of Resources in Cooperative Scientific Work, a CSCW'14 workshop. It discusses the role of software in NSF's CIF21 vision and the SI2 program, which is intended to support that goal. SI2 primarily supports software projects that are proposed in response to solicitations, and some of the criteria used by the peer-reviewers and by NSF in evaluating these projects depend on predicting scientific impact. This paper discusses some ideas on how the prediction of scientific impact can be improved.