Digital repositories can differ in the deposits that they accept, the metadata requested from researchers, how researchers make their deposits and how these deposits are processed. This includes how deposits are reviewed post-deposit and pre-publication and the criteria that are used in these reviews. Despite the differences between individual digital repositories, there are some common checks that can be done for any software deposit. The nature and degree to which a software deposit can be reviewed depends upon the time, effort and expertise you have available. This guide describes three approaches to reviewing a deposit: a quick content review, a more detailed consistency review and a comprehensive review of quality, utility and usability.

This work was funded by Jisc. The Software Sustainability Institute is supported by EPSRC grant EP/H043160/1 and EPSRC/BBSRC and ESRC grant EP/N006410/1.