Abstract
Biologists increasingly rely on computer code to collect and analyze
their data, reinforcing the importance of published code for
transparency, reproducibility, training, and a basis for further work.
Here we conduct a literature review examining temporal trends in code
sharing in ecology and evolution publications since 2010, and test for
an influence of code sharing on citation rate. We find that there is
wide room for improvement in sharing code, as scientists are
overwhelmingly (95%) failing to publish their code and that there has
been no significant improvement over time. We also determined that there
is a significant incentive to share, as we additionally find that code
sharing can considerably improve citations, particularly when combined
with open-access publication.