Re:Why scientific programming does not compute
by eru on Wednesday July 06, 2011 @06:47PM
(#2736311)
Won't you get a citation, whenever somebody uses your code?
Re:Why scientific programming does not compute
by starwed on Wednesday July 06, 2011 @08:05PM
(#2736542)
Typically a review paper describing the software is what is actually cited, but yes!
For instance, in my department there is a guy who maintains an astrophysical software package called Cloudy. The faq[1] describes how to cite it. (Unlike a lot of the software mentioned here, that project actually is open source, uses version control, and was migrated from the original Fortran to C++.)
In addition, there are really no structural/institutional incentives to produce and share good quality scientific code. Maintaining good code costs much effort and, currently, gives few short-term benefits. It's often easier to produce crappy code, get the results, publish and move ahead.