"If you are publishing articles with no source code, how is that even science?" - We have a methods section in the paper, just like in the science fair.
"After all, if you publish details of how you worked stuff out, even without source code someone else might reproduce your work." - hopefully they do! and hopefully they do it in a different way, doing the same thing twice is pointless. This is why the Hubble Constant started off being 150, then was 50, and now hovers around 69. Because everyone did the problem in their own unique way and didn't borrow each other's code and procedures.
"there would still be the same number of jobs in astronomy" - yes, that's the problem, there aren't enough. So the job goes to the guy with the most citations and publications-- I want that guy to be me.
"And don't you think if you are using the software from another group you would cite the authors?" - that's not the whole point. Writing a simulation may take 3 years, then analysis can take another 3 years. If I wrote it, I want first dibs on analysing it, I don't want someone else taking the results I created and publishing them before me.
The system is cutthroat, sure, but it does have benefits if you know how to play the game. Politics is surprisingly omnipresent here.
"After all, if you publish details of how you worked stuff out, even without source code someone else might reproduce your work." - hopefully they do! and hopefully they do it in a different way, doing the same thing twice is pointless. This is why the Hubble Constant started off being 150, then was 50, and now hovers around 69. Because everyone did the problem in their own unique way and didn't borrow each other's code and procedures.
"there would still be the same number of jobs in astronomy" - yes, that's the problem, there aren't enough. So the job goes to the guy with the most citations and publications-- I want that guy to be me.
"And don't you think if you are using the software from another group you would cite the authors?" - that's not the whole point. Writing a simulation may take 3 years, then analysis can take another 3 years. If I wrote it, I want first dibs on analysing it, I don't want someone else taking the results I created and publishing them before me.
The system is cutthroat, sure, but it does have benefits if you know how to play the game. Politics is surprisingly omnipresent here.