There never was a C++ paper design; design, documentation, and implementation went on simultaneously. Naturally, the C++ front-end
                       is written in C++. There never was a “C++ project” either, or a “C++ design committee”. Throughout, C++ evolved, and continues to
                       evolve, to cope with problems encountered by users, and through discussions between the author and his friends and colleagues    

                                   -Bjarne Stroustrup: An overview of C++. ACM Sigplan Notices, Special Issue. October, 1986
Stepanov went to Stroustrup for his idea regarding generic programming, his colleague in Bell Labs,the same develop-first atmosphere, all the same story.

I'm not against anything called research, my current occupation might be called research. I just don't believe in formal, academic research.