Skip to content

Citation for R

4 messages · Gordon K Smyth, Achim Zeileis, Uwe Ligges +1 more

Original
Gordon K Smyth
# 
Oops, I meant to write "R does not have a User Guide".

Just to explain this further, the citation() function asks me to cite a 
"Manual" with the title "R: A language and environment for statistical 
computing". Although R comes with excellent documentation, including at 
least 6 manuals on different aspects of the software, no manual or document 
with that title actually exists, as far as I know.

Gordon
Achim Zeileis
#
On Tue, 14 Jun 2005 10:38:38 +1000 Gordon Smyth wrote:

            

      
      
      
    

        
Well, @Manual indicates just the type of BibTeX entry which is the
closest thing you have in BibTeX as there is not @Software or something
similar.

            

      
      
      
    

        
The idea is that you can cite the software as a whole which also has an
ISBN number which makes it good enough for many publishers to accept it
(and btw has also led to some faxes ordering the `book' "R: A Language
and..." in Vienna). Anyway, if it is possible to cite the software
directly, you don't want to have some surrogate paper which documents
part of the software, a much earlier version, or...
When it is not possible to cite software directly, it should be -
although I understand that this is not just as simple as saying it.
Z

  
  


  


      

    

    

      
      

        


  

        

      Uwe Ligges
    

    

      
      #
    

  


  

      
Gordon Smyth wrote:

        

            

      
      
      
    

        
It does: Some poeople might refer to the same manual with "R Reference 
index", but this is actually the one you cited above.

BTW: In both of my last two reviews for medical journals I criticized 
(not only) the missing citation of software ... (obviously political 
incorrectly, but I'll do so further on ;-))

Uwe Ligges

            

      
      
      
    

        

      
      
    

  
  


  


      

    

    

      
      

        


  

        

      Friedrich Leisch
    

    

      
      #
    

  


  

          

      
      
      
    

        
>> Note also that R does have a User Guide, i.e., while there is plenty of 
  >> excellent documentation,
  >> there is no single document which is a guide to the whole project.

  > Oops, I meant to write "R does not have a User Guide".

  > Just to explain this further, the citation() function asks me to cite a 
  > "Manual" with the title "R: A language and environment for statistical 
  > computing". Although R comes with excellent documentation, including at 
  > least 6 manuals on different aspects of the software, no manual or document 
  > with that title actually exists, as far as I know.

The Reference Index (all help Pages in one PDF document) has that name
("Reference Index" is actually the subtitle), and you can download it
from

	http://cran.r-project.org/manuals.html

(it's the 12MB guy at the end of the list of manuals). The ISBN rules
make it possible to cover both a software package and it's
corresponding reference manual by one single ISBN number if they are
bundled tightly and that's what we did for R. So as far as citations
go this should be as good a reference as any printed book. ISBN does not
require the item to be available for sale in printed form, electronic
publication is sufficient, see

	http://www.isbn-international.org/en/userman/chapter6.html

The only open question is how many ISBN number we need exactly for R
(every patch release, every minor release etc.). I had a short
discussion with the Austrian ISBN representative and he recommended
for a fast-changing work like R to consider it like a database or
encyclopedia (which is true for the help pages anyway), and be rather
pragmatic. Hence we assigned a new ISBN to version 2.0.0 and will do so
again for 3.0.0.

Best,