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DOE CODE

DOE CODE is the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) software services platform and search tool for software resulting from DOE-funded research. All scientific and technical software is required to be submitted to DOE CODE in order to ensure proper handling, announcement, and dissemination in accordance with DOE statutory responsibilities.

In addition to OSTI's charge for scientific software, the Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) and OSTI are partnering to leverage DOE CODE to maintain a comprehensive inventory of DOE-funded custom-developed business software. In accordance with Office of Management and Budget Memorandum M-16-21, Federal Source Code Policy: Achieving Efficiency, Transparency, and Innovation through Reusable and Open Source Software, DOE CODE will fulfill requirements to maintain an inventory of all DOE-funded custom-developed software and to report this inventory to the government-wide Code.gov (link is external) website.

When providing software and code to DOE CODE, users will first need to identify what type of software they are submitting - scientific or business software. Users who are unsure of the type of software are encouraged to please work with their site's Dissemination Authority.

As required by DOE O 241.1B, software submitting sites are to review all software for classified and sensitive unclassified information, including Personally Identifiable Information (PII), according to approved local procedures, prior to announcing and/or submitting software to OSTI via DOE CODE. The submitting site should conduct reviews to determine the appropriate Intellectual Property or other category of sensitivity.

Depending on the software's project type and access limitation, either a repository URL, landing page, or contact email for that software is provided on the project page in DOE CODE. Requests for software are referred by OSTI to the originating site.

There are basic requirements for metadata fields; however, other optional/non-mandatory data fields should be included with the DOE CODE announcement when possible. DOE CODE offers two paths for users to provide Unlimited scientific software. Users can (1) submit code to DOE CODE, and (2) announce code to the Department of Energy for official review and release through DOE CODE. For more information about submitting and announcing code, see "What does it mean to submit scientific software to DOE CODE?", and "What does it mean to announce scientific software to DOE CODE?" Limited access software may only be Announced.

Required Metadata Elements to Submit Software to DOE CODE:

  • Project Type
  • Repository URL, Landing Page, or Contact Email*
  • Software Title
  • Description/Abstract
  • License(s)
  • Developers

*Depends on software's project type and access limitation.

Required Metadata Elements to Announce Software to DOE CODE:

  • Project Type
  • Repository URL, Landing Page, or Contact Email*
  • Software Title
  • Description/Abstract
  • License(s)
  • Developers
  • Release Date
  • Source Code Upload**
  • Sponsoring Organization Name
  • Primary Award Number
  • Research Organization Name
  • Contact Information

*Depends on software's project type and access limitation.
**Required if the project is not hosted in a public repository.