How is R cited in research outputs? Structure, impacts, and citation standard

Kai Li, Erjia Yan and Yuanyuan Feng

Journal of Informetrics, 2017, vol. 11, issue 4, 989-1002

Abstract: This paper addresses software citation by analyzing how R and its packages are cited in a sample of PLoS papers. A codebook is developed to support a content analysis of the full-text papers. Our results indicate that the software R and its packages are inconsistently cited, as is the case with other scientific software. The inconsistency derives partly from the variety of citation standards currently used for software, and partly from fact that these standards are not well followed by authors on multiple levels. This work sheds light on the future development of software citation standards, especially given the present landscape of conflicting citation practices. Moreover, our approach furnishes a possible blueprint for dealing with the granularity of software entities in scientific citation: we consider citations of the core R software environment, of specific R packages, and of individual functions.

Keywords: R; Software citation; Content analysis; Bibliometrics; Scholarly communication (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (12)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1751157717300329
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:infome:v:11:y:2017:i:4:p:989-1002

DOI: 10.1016/j.joi.2017.08.003

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Informetrics is currently edited by Leo Egghe

More articles in Journal of Informetrics from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().