What have we learnt from the RSE journey so far

The Turing Way project illustration by Scriberia. Used under a CC-BY 4.0 licence. DOI: The Turing Way Community & Scriberia (2024).

The role of a Research Software Engineer (RSE) has been evolving since the term was first coined at Software Sustainability Institute’s Collaborations Workshop 2012, almost a decade and a half ago. RSEs play an important role in the research ecosystem by developing and maintaining software that supports research activities.

The international RSE survey is an annual survey that collects data on the demographics, skills, practices, and experiences of RSEs around the world. The survey has been conducted since 2016 providing an opportunity to track the evolution of the RSE role over time. This is an analysis report based on the RSE survey data from 2016-2022. Data for the years 2019-2021 are not reported.

In this report, we explore the following aspects of the RSE community:

• Disciplines in which RSEs work
• How are RSEs typically testing software
• Version control tools used for software development
• Funding sources for RSE work
• Factors influencing the move to RSE roles