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Software plays an increasingly critical role in science, including data analysis, simulations, and managing workflows. Unlike other technologies supporting science, software can be copied and distributed at essentially no cost, potentially opening the door to unprecedented levels of sharing and collaborative innovation. Yet we do not have a clear picture of how software development for science fits into the day-to-day practice of science, or how well the methods and incentives of its production facilitate realization of this potential. We report the results of a multiple-case study of software development in three fields: high energy physics, structural biology, and microbiology. In each case, we identify a typical publication, and use qualitative methods to explore the production of the software used in the science represented by the publication. We identify several different production systems, characterized primarily by differences in incentive structures. We identify ways in which incentives are matched and mismatched with the needs of the science fields, especially with respect to collaboration.
Howison et al. (Sat,) studied this question.