Beyond technical interest, Mastrave is offered in freedom to promote scientific cooperation, following the ideas of the free software movement.   If this free software has been relevant in your research, please acknowledge Mastrave and its authors and the free software movement, by linking to the project page http://www.mastrave.org and to http://www.gnu.org.  You should cite in the references of your publications both:

• the specific publication which describes the particular tools of Mastrave and/or methodological application of semantic array programming that you used (e.g.

  de Rigo, D. (2012) Semantic Array Programming for Environmental Modelling: Application of the Mastrave Library. International Environmental Modelling and Software Society (iEMSs) 2012 International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software - Managing Resources of a Limited Planet, Sixth Biennial Meeting, Leipzig, Germany

  ) and
• de Rigo, D. (2012). Semantic Array Programming with Mastrave - Introduction to Semantic Computational Modelling. http://mastrave.org/doc/MTV-1.012-1

Such citations will help others find both specific tools of Mastrave (and how they can be used) and authoritative information on semantic array programming.  Best peer-reviewed case studies will periodically be commented and categorized for helping other scientists retrieve your work and easing advanced applications' learning curve.

Research collaboration applications

Should your research team be interested in exploring a formal collaboration to start a joint research program, the preferred way for interacting would be to submit(*) an application which should provide a short description of the proposal and if appropriate a minimal bibliography.

Usually, collaborations take the form of a joint effort to model in a computational way a given domain-specific scientific problem.  A recommendable configuration requires the research team to appoint one or more scientific domain experts willing to transfer their knowledge into a computational model while learning the mathematical and modelling implications of a strongly semantic array-programming and reproducibility oriented approach, and available to work on the problem definition and modelling enhancement for a reasonable time span (at least several months).

Continuity of the effort even at low intensity - some few hours per week - is fundamental because the software to be produced will be subject to intense code review to meet non-trivial integrability, portability, robustness and reliability standards.  This also means the modelling design will be typically iterative, as the domain specific knowledge will become more integrated and mutually influential with the proposed modelling paradigm.  Scientific data are expected to be made publicly available and freedom-respecting as the resulting software, in order for external scientific reviewers to easily and independently reproduce at least the key points of the research.  A relevant part of the peer-reviewed publications is expected to be freely accessible to the scientific community without fees.

Growing complexity in emerging scientific areas asks for growing interdisciplinary cooperation, which is one of the driving objectives of Mastrave.  Thank you for the interest in the Mastrave research program.

Footnote

(*) Applications for possible research collaboration can be performed by registered users of Savannah which is a central point for development, maintenance and distribution of free software that runs on free operating systems and hosts the source code repository of Mastrave.  This is the preferred way to get in touch with the Mastrave project.

Please be aware that since its conception the Mastrave project is entirely based on voluntary efforts.  Therefore, you surely understand that the evaluation process for possible scientific collaborations may in some circumstances be forcibly selective irrespective of the intrinsic quality of your proposal.  We apologize for that.