The development process used by academic researchers often seems unsystematic. A Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) is seldom considered, commenting is scarce, and external documentation consists of erasure marks left on whiteboards. Configuration management is paid lip-service, but is not standard practice. This paper examines reasons behind the apparent large-scale non-adoption of software engineering in academic research. The effects where it was adopted are examined. Finally, we present an SDLC designed for the academic research environment.