One of the areas I have worked in is thinking about modeling complex manufacturing systems to try to analyze the cost functions that could be used to approximate the behavior of the system. This required lots of machinery, and reviewers were at a huge disadvantage, wondering what was going on with all my software. I tried to think of ways to “open” the code and the methods, but it was quite difficult. Getting the paper published was not picnic.

The global warming software debate is very similar. I don’t know whose software is more complicated (maybe not mine?). Here’s an article that talks about the lack of (and need for) software reviewing. Academe needs to confront this issue seriously.