[R-pkg-devel] [R] a question of etiquette

[Martin Maechler]

>>>>> Adelchi Azzalini 
>>>>>     on Tue, 2 Jun 2020 08:32:37 +0200 writes:

    > Thanks for this information, Mark.  Given the phrase
    > "small but important function my package uses", it seems
    > that you included in your package some code, reproducing
    > it verbatim.  Do I understand correctly?  In my case, the
    > code which I am actually using is the R porting of code
    > originally written in another language, namely Matlab.

    > Best wishes,
    > Adelchi


Indeed. I would definitely not list the original Matlab authors as
'aut', but just as 'ctb' (= contributor).

e.g., for the 'robustbase' package, I have, among authors using R

      , person("Peter", "Rousseeuw", role="ctb", comment = "Qn and Sn")

Personally, I'd always use a  comment = "..."  tag mentioning
*what* the contributor (or "co-author") has contributed to.

Best,
Martin


    >> On 1 Jun 2020, at 23:37, R. Mark Sharp <rmsharp using me.com>
    >> wrote:
    >> 
    >> Adelchi,
    >> 
    >> I have a similar situation where I had made all of the
    >> typical academic references within the code and
    >> documentation for a small but important function my
    >> package uses. I was asked by the CRAN reviewers to add
    >> the author of that function to the DESCRIPTION Authors using R
    >> section. I added the following: person("Terry",
    >> "Therneau", role = c("aut”))
    >> 
    >> Mark R. Mark Sharp, Ph.D.  Data Scientist and Biomedical
    >> Statistical Consultant 7526 Meadow Green St.  San
    >> Antonio, TX 78251 mobile: 210-218-2868 rmsharp using me.com
    >> 
    >> 
    >> 
    >> 
    >> 
    >> 
    >> 
    >> 
    >> 
    >> 
    >> 
    >>> Begin forwarded message:
    >>> 
    >>> From: Adelchi Azzalini <azzalini using stat.unipd.it> Subject:
    >>> [R] a question of etiquette Date: June 1, 2020 at
    >>> 11:34:00 AM CDT To: r-help using r-project.org
    >>> 
    >>> The new version of a package which I maintain will
    >>> include a new function which I have ported to R from
    >>> Matlab.  The documentation of this R function indicates
    >>> the authors of the original Matlab code, reference to
    >>> their paper, URL of the source code.
    >>> 
    >>> Question: is this adequate, or should I include them as
    >>> co-authors of the package, or as contributors, or what
    >>> else?  Is there a general policy about this matter?
    >>> 
    >>> Adelchi Azzalini http://azzalini.stat.unipd.it/
    >>> 
    >>> ______________________________________________
    >>> R-help using r-project.org mailing list -- To UNSUBSCRIBE and
    >>> more, see 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.
    >> 

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