In the spring of 2013, around 180 scientists who had recently published computational studies in Science received an email from a Columbia University student asking for the code underpinning those pieces of research. Despite the journal having a policy mandating that computer code be made available to readers, the email prompted a range of responses. Some authors refused point-blank to share their code with a stranger, while others reacted defensively, demanding to know how the code would be used. Many, though, simply wrote that they preferred not to share, admitting that their code wasn’t “very user-friendly” or was “not written with an eye towards distributing for other people to use.”

https://www.the-scientist.com/careers/how-to-fix-science-s-code-problem-70447