Appendices
References
International RSE Survey 2026
About
Nordic insights
User Guide
RSE role
1
Do you write software for academic research as part of your job?
2
Who uses the code that you write?
3
Does the majority of your role comprise leading a group of software developers or RSEs?
Education
4
In which discipline is your highest academic qualification?
5
What is the highest level of education you have attained?
Software experience
6
Do you consider yourself a professional software developer?
7
How many years of software development experience do you have?
Open science
8
Do you have an ORCID ID?
9
How often do you license your software with an open-source licence?
UK RSE network
10
Are you a member of any of the following associations of Research Software Engineers (called Research Software Developers in Canada)?
11
How did you learn the skills you need to become a Research Software Engineer / Research Software Developer?
RSE Organisation
12
Would you be interested in joining such an organisation?
13
What would you hope to get out of such an organisation?
14
How could Nordic-RSE or a potential Nordic research software institute foster community engagement and knowledge transfer?
15
With Nordic-RSE we have an association dedicated to the community of Research Software Engineers in the Nordics. What tasks do you think should be undertaken by Nordic-RSE or a future Nordic institute for research software?
Employment
16
Please select your organization type
17
Where was your previous job based?
18
What is your official job title?
19
Are you known in your group by a different job title?
20
Please enter the job title you use.
21
Do you work full time or part time?
22
What is the nature of your current employment?
23
What is the expected duration (in years) of your current position (in total)?
24
Please select the discipline(s) in which you work.
25
Which university do you work for?
Likert scales
26
Actual and desired time spent on activities
27
Satisfaction with current position
28
Satisfaction with career
29
Recognition of research contribution
30
Career prospects and labour market
31
Career mobility and promotion
32
Referencing software in writing
33
Generating DOIs for software
Turnover
34
How likely are you to choose to leave your job in the next 12 months?
Work activities
35
Are you part of a dedicated research software group within your institution?
36
Do you always work with the same researchers, or do you regularly change the researchers you work with?
37
Who are you writing code for, supporting with your code or providing services to?
38
Do you feel like you have a network of peers that extends beyond your close colleagues?
Publications
39
Have you published a paper about your software? (For example in journals such as JOSS or Software-x)
40
In general, when your software contributes to a paper, are you acknowledged in that paper?
Conferences
41
Have you presented your software work at a conference or workshop?
42
At which conference(s)/workshop(s) have you presented your software work?
Project Management
43
How many software projects are you currently involved in?
44
Do your research software projects typically include a project manager?
45
How do you test the software that you produce?
46
Which version control tools do you use for software development?
47
Which collaboration tools do you use for software development?
Job stability
48
What is the minimum number of software developers that would have to suddenly disappear from your current project before it stalls due to a lack of knowledgeable people?
49
Do the projects you work on typically have a plan to cope with developers leaving the group?
Training
50
On average, how many times a year do you take part in providing training?
51
What training programs are you involved with?
52
Do you teach or support the teaching of credit bearing modules or courses?
53
In what capacity do you contribute?
54
Are you granted time for personal skills acquisition or professional development? (For example, learning a new technique that is not specifically needed for a current project)
55
What three skills would you like to acquire or improve to help your work as a Research Software Engineer / Research Software Developer? The skills can be technical and non-technical.
Funding
56
Which of the following sources are used to pay for your effort as a Research Software Engineer?
57
Do you have access to grants in your institutions/country for RSE type of work (ie not research grants)?
Tooling
58
On which platform(s) is your most recent research software project deployed?
59
Which operating system do you primarily use for development?
60
What programming languages do you use at work? Please select all that apply.
Generative AI
61
How frequently do you use generative AI tools in your RSE-related tasks (e.g., coding, documentation, testing, or design)?
62
For what purposes do you use generative AI tools?
63
Which generative AI tools do you currently use in your RSE work?
64
Over the next five years, how do you think generative AI tools will affect demand for RSEs roles?
65
Over the next five years, how do you think generative AI tools will affect you?
66
What skills do you think are necessary to effectively use generative AI for research software development tasks?
Demographics
67
Please select your age
Appendices
A
Data and methodology
B
Recoding
References
Appendices
References
References
B
Recoding