[R] [Rd] Citation for R

[White, Charles E WRAIR-Wash DC]

My subject line refers to a thread from June 2005 where I found
explanations from Uwe Ligges and Friedrich Leisch as to what is intended
by the R citation recommended within the software. Forgive me if I
missed some points within the thread but when I found myself circling
through messages I had already read, I stopped trying to follow it. I
understand and mostly agree with how the R citation is currently
suggested, though I would like to make two recommendations:

(1) Include the version number in the citation.

When editors realize I'm citing software, they want to know which
version I am citing. Since the document we are citing (called the
'Reference Index' under the 'Manuals' link) actually includes the
version number anyway, I recommend that the R Development Core Team
expand the reference to include that information. A suggested format
follows:

R Development Core Team (2005). R: A language and environment for
statistical computing, reference index version 2.2.1. R Foundation for
Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria. ISBN 3-900051-07-0, URL
http://www.R-project.org.

(2) Help editors find the cited document by (a) explicitly providing a
citation link on the main web page for the R-project and (b) referencing
the cited document on the web site by the name under which it is cited.

Imagine the hapless editor following the R-project link expecting to
find a document called "R: A language and environment for statistical
computing." They then Google the ISBN number and find it referring to
multiple versions of the software. <grin> With regard to the citation
link, I recommend that it be called 'Citing R' and that it be placed on
the left side of the web page under the header called 'About R.' With
regard to the text on the page linked to 'Citing R,' I suggest something
like the following:

The R Development Core Team recommends the following citation for the
current major release of R:

R Development Core Team (2005). R: A language and environment for
statistical computing, reference index version 2.x.x. R Foundation for
Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria. ISBN 3-900051-07-0, URL
http://www.R-project.org.

With regard to the version number, 2 is the major release, the first x
is the minor release, and the last x is the patch level. The ISBN number
covers both the software and the tightly bundled reference index. This
number changes with each major release of R.
...

Thanks for your time.

Chuck

Charles E. White, Senior Biostatistician, MS
Walter Reed Army Institute of Research
503 Robert Grant Ave., Room 1w102
Silver Spring, MD 20910-1557
301 319-9781
Personal/Professional Site:
http://users.starpower.net/cwhite571/professional/