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Citing R/Packages Question
7 messages · Derek Ogle, Roger Koenker, Achim Zeileis +4 more
I've had an email exchange with the authors of a recent paper in Nature who also made a good faith effort to cite both R and the quantreg package, and were told that the Nature "house style" didn't allow such citations so they were dropped from the published paper and the "supplementary material" appearing on the Nature website. Since the CRAN website makes a special effort to make prior versions of packages available, it would seem to me to be much more useful to cite version numbers than access dates. There are serious questions about the ephemerality of url citations, not all of which are adequately resolved by the Wayback machine, and access dating, but it would be nice to have some better standards for such contingent citations rather than leave authors at the mercy of copy editors. I would also be interested in suggestions by other contributors. url: www.econ.uiuc.edu/~roger Roger Koenker email rkoenker at uiuc.edu Department of Economics vox: 217-333-4558 University of Illinois fax: 217-244-6678 Champaign, IL 61820
On May 8, 2009, at 5:27 PM, Derek Ogle wrote:
I used R and the quantreg package in a manuscript that is currently in the proofs stage. I cited both R and quantreg as suggested by citation() and noted the version of R and quantreg that I used in the main text as "All tests were computed with the R v2.9.0 statistical programming language (R Development Core 2008). Quantile regressions were conducted with the quantreg v4.27 package (Koenker 2008) for R." The editor has asked me to also "provide the date when the webpage was accessed" for both R and quantreg. This does not seem like an appropriate request to me as both R and the quantreg package are versioned. This request seems to me to be the same as asking someone when they purchased commercial package X version Y (which I don't think would be asked). Am I thinking about this correctly or has the editor made a valid request? I would be interested in any comments or opinions. Dr. Derek H. Ogle Associate Professor of Mathematical Sciences and Natural Resources Northland College 1411 Ellis Avenue Box 112 Ashland, WI 715.682.1300 www.ncfaculty.net/dogle/ [[alternative HTML version deleted]]
______________________________________________ R-help at r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
On Sat, 9 May 2009, roger koenker wrote:
I've had an email exchange with the authors of a recent paper in Nature who also made a good faith effort to cite both R and the quantreg package, and were told that the Nature "house style" didn't allow such citations so they were dropped from the published paper and the "supplementary material" appearing on the Nature website.
Interesting. Software manuals with an ISBN are not good enough for the Nature "house style"? I wonder what the problem with that could be...
Since the CRAN website makes a special effort to make prior versions of packages available, it would seem to me to be much more useful to cite version numbers than access dates.
Definitely, yes. Current versions of R with current versions of quantreg for example yield: Roger Koenker (2009). quantreg: Quantile Regression. R package version 4.27. http://CRAN.R-project.org/package=quantreg Even if 4.27 is not current anymore it will be available under the "archive" link at the above URL. So an access date is not necessary. Pointing this out to the journal editors might help. If not, providing the access date (while keeping all other information) won't do any damage.
There are serious questions about the ephemerality of url citations, not all of which are adequately resolved by the Wayback machine, and access dating, but it would be nice to have some better standards for such contingent citations rather than leave authors at the mercy of copy editors. I would also be interested in suggestions by other contributors.
I wouldn't be aware of good generally applicable standards of citing software. The default output of citation() has been chosen because repository+package+version uniquely identify which package was used (not unsimilar to journal+volume+pages). Also, using the URL http://CRAN.R-project.org/package=quantreg has the advantage that it is independent of the physical location on CRAN. So in case the structure of the package pages on CRAN changes in the future, the URL will still point to the relevant page with all necessary information. Best, Z
Most common styles (e.g. APA, Harvard) include the date of access for an electronic reference. While this may be an artifact of history, both reviewers and editors are justified in asking authors to adhere to the style used in a particular journal. That said, I don't see why Nature or any other journal would refuse to include a reference that was properly formatted. Jim
1 day later
It would be nice if each package went through a peer-review and had a related publication (either in R-news or J Stat Soft). This publication can then be used as the official citation for the package. However, this still would not address updates and versions of the package. Ravi. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------- Ravi Varadhan, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, The Center on Aging and Health Division of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology Johns Hopkins University Ph: (410) 502-2619 Fax: (410) 614-9625 Email: rvaradhan at jhmi.edu Webpage: http://www.jhsph.edu/agingandhealth/People/Faculty/Varadhan.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------- -----Original Message----- From: r-help-bounces at r-project.org [mailto:r-help-bounces at r-project.org] On Behalf Of roger koenker Sent: Saturday, May 09, 2009 8:36 AM To: Derek Ogle Cc: r-help at r-project.org Subject: Re: [R] Citing R/Packages Question I've had an email exchange with the authors of a recent paper in Nature who also made a good faith effort to cite both R and the quantreg package, and were told that the Nature "house style" didn't allow such citations so they were dropped from the published paper and the "supplementary material" appearing on the Nature website. Since the CRAN website makes a special effort to make prior versions of packages available, it would seem to me to be much more useful to cite version numbers than access dates. There are serious questions about the ephemerality of url citations, not all of which are adequately resolved by the Wayback machine, and access dating, but it would be nice to have some better standards for such contingent citations rather than leave authors at the mercy of copy editors. I would also be interested in suggestions by other contributors. url: www.econ.uiuc.edu/~roger Roger Koenker email rkoenker at uiuc.edu Department of Economics vox: 217-333-4558 University of Illinois fax: 217-244-6678 Champaign, IL 61820
On May 8, 2009, at 5:27 PM, Derek Ogle wrote:
I used R and the quantreg package in a manuscript that is currently in the proofs stage. I cited both R and quantreg as suggested by citation() and noted the version of R and quantreg that I used in the main text as "All tests were computed with the R v2.9.0 statistical programming language (R Development Core 2008). Quantile regressions were conducted with the quantreg v4.27 package (Koenker 2008) for R." The editor has asked me to also "provide the date when the webpage was accessed" for both R and quantreg. This does not seem like an appropriate request to me as both R and the quantreg package are versioned. This request seems to me to be the same as asking someone when they purchased commercial package X version Y (which I don't think would be asked). Am I thinking about this correctly or has the editor made a valid request? I would be interested in any comments or opinions. Dr. Derek H. Ogle Associate Professor of Mathematical Sciences and Natural Resources Northland College 1411 Ellis Avenue Box 112 Ashland, WI 715.682.1300 www.ncfaculty.net/dogle/ [[alternative HTML version deleted]]
______________________________________________ R-help at r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do read the posting guide
http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
______________________________________________ R-help at r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
I have have a package that I wrote called StreamMetabolism; which I use to calculate single station stream metabolism from diurnal oxygen curves. I would love to publish something about it (I am also an entering PhD student and need publications); however, I am not sure the applicability out side of a small subset of stream ecologists. Also, JSS or Rnews may not be the proper forum. We could publish a bulletin or something with all of the packages as an official document to site. Just a half fleshed idea. thanks Stephen Sefick
On Mon, May 11, 2009 at 9:48 AM, Ravi Varadhan <RVaradhan at jhmi.edu> wrote:
It would be nice if each package went through a peer-review and had a related publication (either in R-news or J Stat Soft). ?This publication can then be used as the official citation for the package. ?However, this still would not address updates and versions of the package. Ravi. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------- Ravi Varadhan, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, The Center on Aging and Health Division of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology Johns Hopkins University Ph: (410) 502-2619 Fax: (410) 614-9625 Email: rvaradhan at jhmi.edu Webpage: ?http://www.jhsph.edu/agingandhealth/People/Faculty/Varadhan.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------- -----Original Message----- From: r-help-bounces at r-project.org [mailto:r-help-bounces at r-project.org] On Behalf Of roger koenker Sent: Saturday, May 09, 2009 8:36 AM To: Derek Ogle Cc: r-help at r-project.org Subject: Re: [R] Citing R/Packages Question I've had an email exchange with the authors of a recent paper in Nature who also made a good faith effort to cite both R and the quantreg package, and were told that the Nature "house style" didn't allow such citations so they were dropped from the published paper and the "supplementary material" appearing on the Nature website. Since the CRAN website makes a special effort to make prior versions of packages available, it would seem to me to be much more useful to cite version numbers than access dates. ?There ?are serious questions about the ephemerality of url citations, not all of which are adequately resolved by the Wayback machine, and access dating, but it would be nice to have some better standards for such contingent citations rather than leave authors at the mercy of copy editors. ?I would also be interested in suggestions by other contributors. url: ? ?www.econ.uiuc.edu/~roger ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?Roger Koenker email ? rkoenker at uiuc.edu ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Department of Economics vox: ? ?217-333-4558 ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?University of Illinois fax: ? ?217-244-6678 ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?Champaign, IL 61820 On May 8, 2009, at 5:27 PM, Derek Ogle wrote:
I used R and the quantreg package in a manuscript that is currently in the proofs stage. ?I cited both R and quantreg as suggested by citation() and noted the version of R and quantreg that I used in the main text as ?"All tests were computed with the R v2.9.0 statistical programming language (R Development Core 2008). ?Quantile regressions were conducted with the quantreg v4.27 package (Koenker 2008) for R." The editor has asked me to also "provide the date when the webpage was accessed" for both R and quantreg. This does not seem like an appropriate request to me as both R and the quantreg package are versioned. ?This request seems to me to be the same as asking someone when they purchased commercial package X version Y (which I don't think would be asked). Am I thinking about this correctly or has the editor made a valid request? I would be interested in any comments or opinions. Dr. Derek H. Ogle Associate Professor of Mathematical Sciences and Natural Resources Northland College 1411 Ellis Avenue Box 112 Ashland, WI 715.682.1300 www.ncfaculty.net/dogle/ ? ? ? [[alternative HTML version deleted]]
______________________________________________ R-help at r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do read the posting guide
http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code. ______________________________________________ R-help at r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code. ______________________________________________ R-help at r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
Stephen Sefick Let's not spend our time and resources thinking about things that are so little or so large that all they really do for us is puff us up and make us feel like gods. We are mammals, and have not exhausted the annoying little problems of being mammals. -K. Mullis
1 day later
Hi, Stephen:
Have you discussed this with any of your professors? With a
little luck, you might find the right prof to work with who could help
you select an ecology journal and write an article for that journal
giving an overview of your package. I suggest you think in terms of a
2-page overview, with half the space devoted to the most eye-catching
graphic you've produced, showing the R commands to generate it and
explaining why someone else might want to produce similar plots using
your package -- or using R more generally. Your chances of getting
something like this accepted depend on the editors, but some journals
might accept something like this when they would reject a longer article
because it would not be sufficiently novel to justify publication. You
could also work it into a vignette and distribute it with your package
while the journal is reviewing it.
If your favorite ecology journal rejects it, you can rework it for
"R Journal" (the replacement for "R News") or the Journal of Statistical
Software.
Good Luck!
Spencer Graves
stephen sefick wrote:
I have have a package that I wrote called StreamMetabolism; which I use to calculate single station stream metabolism from diurnal oxygen curves. I would love to publish something about it (I am also an entering PhD student and need publications); however, I am not sure the applicability out side of a small subset of stream ecologists. Also, JSS or Rnews may not be the proper forum. We could publish a bulletin or something with all of the packages as an official document to site. Just a half fleshed idea. thanks Stephen Sefick On Mon, May 11, 2009 at 9:48 AM, Ravi Varadhan <RVaradhan at jhmi.edu> wrote:
It would be nice if each package went through a peer-review and had a related publication (either in R-news or J Stat Soft). This publication can then be used as the official citation for the package. However, this still would not address updates and versions of the package. Ravi. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------- Ravi Varadhan, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, The Center on Aging and Health Division of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology Johns Hopkins University Ph: (410) 502-2619 Fax: (410) 614-9625 Email: rvaradhan at jhmi.edu Webpage: http://www.jhsph.edu/agingandhealth/People/Faculty/Varadhan.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------- -----Original Message----- From: r-help-bounces at r-project.org [mailto:r-help-bounces at r-project.org] On Behalf Of roger koenker Sent: Saturday, May 09, 2009 8:36 AM To: Derek Ogle Cc: r-help at r-project.org Subject: Re: [R] Citing R/Packages Question I've had an email exchange with the authors of a recent paper in Nature who also made a good faith effort to cite both R and the quantreg package, and were told that the Nature "house style" didn't allow such citations so they were dropped from the published paper and the "supplementary material" appearing on the Nature website. Since the CRAN website makes a special effort to make prior versions of packages available, it would seem to me to be much more useful to cite version numbers than access dates. There are serious questions about the ephemerality of url citations, not all of which are adequately resolved by the Wayback machine, and access dating, but it would be nice to have some better standards for such contingent citations rather than leave authors at the mercy of copy editors. I would also be interested in suggestions by other contributors. url: www.econ.uiuc.edu/~roger Roger Koenker email rkoenker at uiuc.edu Department of Economics vox: 217-333-4558 University of Illinois fax: 217-244-6678 Champaign, IL 61820 On May 8, 2009, at 5:27 PM, Derek Ogle wrote:
I used R and the quantreg package in a manuscript that is currently in
the proofs stage. I cited both R and quantreg as suggested by
citation() and noted the version of R and quantreg that I used in the
main text as
"All tests were computed with the R v2.9.0 statistical programming
language (R Development Core 2008). Quantile regressions were
conducted with the quantreg v4.27 package (Koenker 2008) for R."
The editor has asked me to also "provide the date when the webpage was
accessed" for both R and quantreg.
This does not seem like an appropriate request to me as both R and the
quantreg package are versioned. This request seems to me to be the
same
as asking someone when they purchased commercial package X version Y
(which I don't think would be asked).
Am I thinking about this correctly or has the editor made a valid
request?
I would be interested in any comments or opinions.
Dr. Derek H. Ogle
Associate Professor of Mathematical Sciences and Natural Resources
Northland College
1411 Ellis Avenue
Box 112
Ashland, WI
715.682.1300
www.ncfaculty.net/dogle/
[[alternative HTML version deleted]]
______________________________________________ R-help at r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do read the posting guide
http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code. ______________________________________________ R-help at r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code. ______________________________________________ R-help at r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.