[Python-ideas] Add citation() to site.py

[Steven D'Aprano]

On Sun, Mar 20, 2016 at 01:26:03PM -0700, Nikolaus Rath wrote:
> On Mar 19 2016, Nick Coghlan <ncoghlan-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> > The reason I suggest that approach is that most (all?) of us aren't
> > research scientists, so we have no idea what typical conventions are
> > for citations, nor how those conventions are changing.
> 
> Which I believe makes it completely pointless to cite Python at all. As
> far as I can see, nowadays citations are given for two reasons:
> 
> 1. To give the reader a starting point to get more information on a
>    topic.
> 
> 2. To formally acknowledge the work done by someone else (who ends up
>    with an increased number of citations for the cited publication,
>    which is unfortunately a crucial metric in most academic hiring and
>    evaluation processes).
>    
> In case of Python, an explicit citation thus adds nothing. 

I'm afraid I don't understand your reasoning here. Both of your two 
reasons apply: a citation to Python gives the reader a starting point to 
get more information, and it formally acknowledges the work done by 
others. So a citation adds exactly the two things that you say citations 
are used for.

You might feel that everybody knows how to use google, and that a formal 
acknowledgement is pointless because nobody cares, but that's a value 
judgement about the usefulness of what the citation adds, not whether it 
adds them or not. Useful or not, scientific papers do cite the software 
they use. This proposal is about making it easier for people to do so, 
not about changing their behaviour.

For the record, I think citations of software are useful, but other 
arguments have convinced me that for the time being at least, this is 
best handled as documentation rather than code. More on that shortly.


-- 
Steve