No clear way to cite rpy2 on scientific publications.

[gmagannaDevelop]

Hello,

More than a real feature request I am opening this issue because I cannot find an answer on how to cite your software on scientific publications. R packages usually include a bibtex entry accessible via citation().

I would like to properly credit rpy2 on a paper I am about to publish, so I would like to know if there is a publication that I can cite or if you cloud please provide me with the necessary details.

As a "feature request", I think that having this information on this repo's README and the docs would be great.

Thanks in advance.

Post data.
I intend something like the following:

  @Manual{,
    title = {R: A Language and Environment for Statistical Computing},
    author = {{R Core Team}},
    organization = {R Foundation for Statistical Computing},
    address = {Vienna, Austria},
    year = {2021},
    url = {https://www.R-project.org/},
  }

[lgautier]

Thanks for wanting to ensure that credit is given to the project. I have on my TO-DO list to write a short manuscript that can serve as a reference for citation for over a decade, but I seem to always end up work on improving rpy2 instead. :-)

[abubelinha]

I have the same request 👍

[krassowski]

@lgautier you might be interested in the recent discussion that we had over in JupyterLab team on some pros/cons of using Zenodo to get a cite-able DOI fast: jupyterlab/frontends-team-compass#144 no one got time to write a full JOSS manuscript). Might not be what you want but just thought that this could be of some relevance.

[andreped]

If there is no plan to make a scientific publication of this project, I would suggest linking this repo with Zenodo, which enables researchers to cite this work. It would be great if @lgautier could add this project to Zenodo. It really only takes 1 minute to do so and you a given an active DOI straight away.

See here for how to do it:
https://docs.github.com/en/repositories/archiving-a-github-repository/referencing-and-citing-content

For reference, see a project of mine for how it will look:
Zenodo: https://zenodo.org/record/7023582#.YycWmHZByUk
GitHub README: https://github.com/andreped/GradientAccumulator#how-to-cite

[JixTheCat]

Commenting as a reminder that this is open and the feature is still wanted!

[abubelinha]

I don't know how old it is, but github already provides a citation system by simply adding a CITATION.cff file to repository root.
This is independent of using other possible tools, like Zenodo/Figshare-based archival & DOI systems.

Maybe @lgautier can just provide such a CITATION.cff file (and then update it when his short manuscript is ready).
A provisional version could be as simple as this example, taken from @moshi4's kind answer to a similar question:

Regards
@abubelinha

[andreped]

I would recommend using Zenodo. It is trivial to setup. Just link the GitHub acvount and make a release. You get an actual DOI and you ensure that the project won't be fully deleted if GitHub or the user deletes the repo.

[abubelinha]

@andreped I agree. Zenodo is great a great archival tool and I'd use it too.

I just said "CITATION.cff is independent of using other possible tools" in the sense that both things can be done.
Documentation shows CITATION.cff file can contain Zenodo-based DOIs or any other links to publications or whatever.

So, if @lgautier has any doubts about using Zenodo or waiting for a published paper in order to get a DOI ... in the mean time he can just provide a simple CITATION.cff file (which can be edited or deleted in the future, whereas DOIs cannot).

That would at least permit an easy way of getting a provisional citation (a DOI is not mandatory for something to be cited).

EDIT: some other suggestions about github citation in this stackexchange forum.

[andreped]

Nothing stops you from having a DOI on the source code and a separate one for the publication. That is quite common and I have done the same as different people have contributed to the code and the actual project and paper.

The whole point with the DOI and citing this project is such that the authors are given appropriate credit and that people can find the project to reproduce their work. If you don't have a DOI how do you keep track of citations and what if the repo is deleted?

[abubelinha]

If you don't have a DOI how do you keep track of citations and what if the repo is deleted?

Well, all that is related but IMHO that's not the main purpose of this issue (as I said, citation-archival-DOI-tracking are independent things).

As for the title, this issue is just about how to properly cite rpy2 in our works, the way rpy2's author tells us to do it.

• I don't care so much if that citation text contains a DOI or not (my references list is plenty of works without a DOI).
• I trust it will not be deleted, so I am not afraid of that happening.
  Anybody concerned about that can just fork it right now and/or archive it somewhere else.
  I think anybody could upload a fork to Zenodo, as far as it clearly references the original work, its author, its licence and the original github repository link. Of course that's not ideal, but that is possible.
• I don't care about how many citations it gets (that may be interesting for its authors or somebody else, but not for my citation purposes).

All that can be solved by Zenodo.
But I have the feeling that talking too much about all those related things may add noise and delay solving this simple citation issue.