Elevating The Status of Code in Ecology

Code is increasingly central to ecological research but often remains unpublished and insufficiently recognized. Making code available allows analyses to be more easily reproduced and can facilitate research by other scientists. We evaluate journal handling of code, discuss barriers to its publication, and suggest approaches for promoting and archiving code. Code is frequently written for ecological studies. Most ecology journals do not address code or software. Journals can promote release of code by changing article formats and requirements. Code archives should provide a license and be long-term and citable.