Dear Michael and Achim,

the problem is obviously that AGU doesn't have a policy for referencing software.  (They have an excellent policy for citing data, but the policy is seldom followed in the paleoclimate field.) I suppose that I could cite a reference manual for R, but that seems a bit weird. Likewise, for the waveslim package, I suppose that I could reference one of Whitcher's publications about it, but that's not really what's involved.

AGU makes a distinction between a citation in the body of the article and in the list of references, and does permit citation of software in a non-recognized archive in the body of the article. I'm not in a position to get into a debate with AGU over how they run their citations. It seems to me that the right course of action is to put the R citation (and the package citation) in the body of the text. 

In a few weeks, I'll probably write to AGU about policies for citing software. 

I think that their main concern over citing of Internet sources is permanence. So unless R packages are mirrored at a recognized permanent data archive, AGU won't permit the citation in the references (although it will in the running text). Maybe it would be a good idea to have an R mirror at one of the permanent data archives. I'm sure one of them wouldn't mind.

Regards, Steve McIntyre


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