[Python-Dev] Official citation for Python

[Brett Cannon]

On Sun, 9 Sep 2018 at 20:55 Terry Reedy <tjreedy at udel.edu> wrote:

> On 9/9/2018 11:39 PM, Jacqueline Kazil wrote:
> > Terry -- For clarification, the format question was not a style
> > question. It was a reference to the one versus many that I wrote in the
> > explainer.
>
> I don't know what you mean by this.
>
> > Yes... there are many prescribed formats already. That is the easy part.
>
> Different publications use different citation formats.  We cannot
> dictate which format an author or publication uses.  We could, and I
> think should, suggest the content of the different fields that go into
> the various formats.  And we could give examples of citing, say, the
> Reference Manual, in the most common formats.
>

What we can suggest, though, is what the information should be and that's
what Jackie is initially asking about, i.e. do we want a single reference
for the language that is version-agnostic or one for each Python release?

My vote is a single reference and leave it up to the person referencing to
clarify the version they are using. Seems the simplest to maintain
long-term.

-Brett


>
> > On Sun, Sep 9, 2018 at 11:33 PM Terry Reedy <tjreedy at udel.edu
> > <mailto:tjreedy at udel.edu>> wrote:
> >
> >     On 9/9/2018 3:43 PM, Jacqueline Kazil wrote:
> >      > <http:///>The PSF has received a few inquiries asking the
> question —
> >      > “How do I cite Python?”So, I am reaching out to you all to figure
> >     this out.
> >      >
> >      > (For those that don’t know my background, I have been in academia
> >     for a
> >      > bit as a Ph.D student and have worked at the Library of Congress
> >     writing
> >      > code to process Marc records
> >     <https://www.loc.gov/marc/bibliographic/>,
> >      > among other things.)
> >      >
> >      > IMHO the citation for Python should be decided upon by the Python
> >      > developers and should live somewhere on the site.
>
> The PSF is the publisher.  It seems that you might be more competent to
> make some of the decisions than are we developers, who have mostly left
> academia some time ago.
>
> >      > Two questions to be answered…
> >      >
> >      >  1. What format should it take?
> >
> >     There are by now formats for citing web documents.  I presume style
> >     guides now include such.  Try a current version of the Chicago
> >     Manual of
> >     Style.  (not sure of exact title).  I will ask a university professor
> >     who should know more than I.
> >
> >      >  2. Where does it live on the site?
> >
> >     On https://bugs.python.org/issue26597, I suggested the Copyright
> page.
>
> To make the answer more visible,
>
> >     I now think a link to 'Citing these Documents' on
> >     https://docs.python.org/3/
> >     would be even better.
>
> tjr
>
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