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Re: Citation format for Octave


From: Juan Pablo Carbajal
Subject: Re: Citation format for Octave
Date: Tue, 26 May 2015 11:24:31 +0200

On Sun, May 24, 2015 at 4:53 AM, Carnë Draug <address@hidden> wrote:
> On 12 May 2015 at 00:03, rik <address@hidden> wrote:
>>
>> John, Carnë, and anyone else who regularly writes academic papers,
>>
>> What should the citation() function return for Octave 4.0?  The current
>> text of the file is:
>>
>> -- CITATION --
>> To cite GNU Octave in publications use:
>>
>>   John W. Eaton, David Bateman, Søren Hauberg, Rik Wehbring (2014).
>>   GNU Octave version 3.8.1 manual: a high-level interactive language for
>>   numerical computations.
>>   CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.  ISBN 1441413006,
>>   URL http://www.gnu.org/software/octave/doc/interpreter/
>>
>> A BibTeX entry for LaTeX users is:
>>
>>   @book{,
>>     author    = {John W. Eaton, David Bateman, S\oren Hauberg, and Rik
>> Wehbring},
>>     title     = {{GNU Octave} version 3.8.1 manual: a high-level
>> interactive language for numerical computations},
>>     publisher = {CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform},
>>     year      = {2014},
>>     note      = {{ISBN} 1441413006},
>>     url       = {http://www.gnu.org/software/octave/doc/interpreter},
>>   }
>>
>> We have invested a lot of time and effort in creating GNU Octave, please
>> cite it
>> when using it.  See also `citation pkgname' for citing Octave packages.
>>
>> -- End CITATION --
>>
>> This is clearly not right, but just changing the version to 4.0.0 isn't
>> going to make the ISBN number correct.  Should we drop the publisher and
>> note fields entirely?
>>
>
> We have an entry on the FAQ about this (which should be updated now).
>
>     http://wiki.octave.org/FAQ#How_can_I_cite_Octave.3F
>
> We ask users to cite the software itself.  Since not every journal will allow
> this, the recommendation is to cite the published book if not possible.  But
> citing software is becoming more common, and there will be fewer issues if
> users try to cite it nowadays.
>
> There's this article [1] from the Software Sustainability Institute that
> discusses how to best cite software (this is aimed at the users not at
> developers, but it's a good view on the subject).
>
> Roughly, recommendation is to cite the software.  It specially recommends
> against citing a paper or version of a manual (like R does), because it's
> not version specific.  The following are some points from section 7 of the
> article:
>
>     * In the first draft of a paper, always put software citations in
>       references or bibliographies.
>     * Be prepared to debate with reviewers why you have cited the software:
>       you want to acknowledge the contribution of the software's authors and
>       the value of software as a legitimate research output.
>     * If a reviewer disagrees with a formal software citation, you can still
>       make a general reference to the software in the paper.
>     * If the software has a DOI (digital object identifier) use it to cite
>       the software. If the software has its own website, use the website's
>       URL for the citation.
>
> I think we should recommend.  Have a ready to use reference for the
> software itself and a DOI (we can have one for each Octave release).
>
> And I guess we could some more public service and have citation() tell users
> at the end that at very least, they should note the version of software used
> in text, not for the sake of Octave developers, but on the interest of
> reproducible research.
>
> Carnë
>
> [1] http://software.ac.uk/so-exactly-what-software-did-you-use

Indeed, as pointed before citing software, so far, hasn't been a
problem for me, here an example

http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fncom.2013.00191/full#B69

It would be nice to have a DOI. This was indeed was asked by the
editors of that journal, but it was not a reason for removing the
citation.



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