Academic citation for Python

[Tim Churches]

Ross Lazarus wrote:
> 
> How should the Python language be cited in an academic publication?
> 
> For example, in
> http://bioinformatics.oupjournals.org/cgi/reprint/17/8/756.pdf the
> author mentions http://www.python.org in the text rather than formally
> citing the primary source - or is that the appropriate primary source
> and recommended attribution?
> 
> I found "Copyright 1991-1995 by Stichting Mathematisch Centrum,
> Amsterdam, The Netherlands" at http://www.python.org/doc/Copyright.html,
> but that doesn't seem as complete or helpful as I'd like for a refereed
> journal.

I cited Python thus:

[16]	G. van Rossum and F.L. Drake (eds), Python Reference Manual,
PythonLabs, Virginia, USA, 2001. Available at http://www.python.org

and Numerical Python thus:

[17]	D. Ascher, P.F. Dubois, K. Hinsen, J. Hugunin and T. Oliphant,
Numerical Python, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore,
California, USA, 2001. Available at http://www.pfdubois.com/numpy/

in a paper which will appear shortly in Computer Methods and Programs in
Biomedicine, and the editors seemed satisfied.

Tim C