I think the problem is not the lack of &quot;career path&quot; or a title, but that the is little credit given to code. (To the point, that usually no public code is being shared, even if the publication bases on it!) Why?<p>- sharing code may mean risk of being scooped (instead of milking the same code for years),<p>- cleaning up code takes time, which can be used for writing another publications.<p>In short, as long as publications (i.e. papers accepted to prestigious journals or conferences) are the only credit in academia, quality programming is lost.<p>See my longer answer: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;academia.stackexchange.com&#x2F;a&#x2F;23238&#x2F;49" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;academia.stackexchange.com&#x2F;a&#x2F;23238&#x2F;49</a>