[Python-Dev] Official citation for Python

[Brett Cannon]

On Sun, 16 Sep 2018 at 15:23 Jacqueline Kazil <jackiekazil at gmail.com> wrote:

> RE: Why cite Python….
>
> I would say that in this paper —
> http://conference.scipy.org/proceedings/scipy2015/pdfs/jacqueline_kazil.pdf,
> where we introduced a new library, we should have cited Python, because the
> library was based in Python. We were riding on the coattails of Python and
> if Python did not exist, then this library would not exist.
>
> (taking this a level higher)
> Just as someone doing research (a specific application) should cite the
> Mesa library. Without the good and bad that is Mesa, their research would
> have taken a different form.
>
> Since my Ph.D is on Mesa, I will be citing Python there.
>
> I think for more insight we can look at who has cited some of Guido’s
> stuff…
> For example:
> https://scholar.google.com/scholar?cites=900267235435084077&as_sdt=20005&sciodt=0,9&hl=en
>
> Does that help?
> RE: Just like R - Versions
>
> @Stephen
> Are you suggesting major versions or minor versions?
> RE: Guido’s prio works
>
> Some of those have weight already. Should we be picking one those and
> pointing people to that?
> Final decision
>
> I am going to the NumFocus summit for maintainers of Science Python
> libraries next week. I believe that the Science Python community is where
> the main audience for this is… correct me if you think this is a wrong
> assumption.
>
> I thought I could take two to three concrete formats and user test there
> and report on how community members who would be using the citation feel.
>
> Good idea? Bad idea?
>
I think seeing how some other academics other than the ones here definitely
wouldn't hurt.

-Brett


>
> On Sun, Sep 16, 2018 at 4:35 AM Stephen J. Turnbull <
> turnbull.stephen.fw at u.tsukuba.ac.jp> wrote:
>
>> Jacqueline Kazil writes:
>>
>>  > *As a user, I am writing an academic paper and I need to cite Python. *
>>
>> I don't understand the meaning of "need" and "Python".  To understand
>> your code, one likely needs the Language Reference and surely the
>> Library Reference, and probably documentation of the APIs and
>> semantics of various third party code.
>>
>> To just give credit to the Python project for the suite of tools
>> you've used, a citation like the R Project's should do (I think this
>> has appeared more than once, I copy it from José María Mateos's
>> parallel post):
>>
>>  > To cite R in publications use:
>>
>>  >   R Core Team (2018). R: A language and environment for statistical
>>  >   computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria.
>>  >   URL https://www.R-project.org/.
>>
>> I guess for Python that would be something like
>>
>> """
>> Python Core Developers [2018].  Python: A general purpose language for
>> computing, with batteries included.  Python Software Foundation,
>> Beaverton, OR.  https://www.python.org/.
>> """
>>
>> I like R's citation() builtin.
>>
>> One caveat: I get the impression that the R Project is far more
>> centralized than Python is, that there are not huge independent
>> projects like SciPy and NumPy and Twisted and so on, nor independent
>> implementations of the core language like PyPy and Jython.  So I
>> suspect that for most serious scientific computing you would need to
>> cite one or more third-pary projects as well, and perhaps an
>> implementation such as PyPy or Jython.
>>
>> Jacqueline again:
>>
>>  > Let's throw reproducibility out the window for now (<--- something
>>  > I never thought I would say), because that should be captured in
>>  > the code, not in the citations.
>>  >
>>  > So, if we don't need the specific version of Python, then maybe
>>  > creating one citation is all we need.
>>
>> Do you realize that `3 / 2` means different computations depending on
>> the version of Python?  And that `"a string"` produces different
>> objects with different duck-types depending on the version?
>>
>> As far as handling versions, this would do, I think:
>>
>> f"""
>> Python Core Developers [{release_year}].  Python: A general purpose
>> language for computing, with batteries included, version
>> {version_number}.  Python Software Foundation, Beaverton, OR.
>> Project URL: https://www.python.org/.
>> """
>>
>
>
> --
> Jacqueline Kazil | @jackiekazil
>
>
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