Roy,
I completely and utterly subscribe to the fact that proper citations
are necessary not only in academic text but also in programs that some
of us may output too.
I, just for the sake of clarity, have never had any intentions
whatsoever to fail to adhere to proper academic standards of citation.
The reason for posting my question is the fact that I am new to such a
vital programming community and would like to carry my share of work
in it too. And while doing so I just wish to learn more of the subtle
nuances of how this is done in the Stata community.
I have in fact sent mails to the programs' original authors pointing
to the identified problems and suggesting remedies. We just have to
wait for their response. If they do not feel that my suggested changes
are appropriate it is up to them to turn them down. But, since I am
sure others may stumble on the same problems I have, at least the
suggested solutions are available on Statalist too so that (almost)
anyone having these problems can alter their own codes.
Regards,
Joachim
Quoting Roy Wada <[email protected]>:
>>> and imply that a suitably large portion of the credit for the
>>> program belongs to
>>> the original authors."
>
> I would suggest that several responsible people do some powwow and
> change this language. This is a problem waiting to happen again and
> again. I would further suggest a Stata FAQ (not Statalist FAQ) be
> established regarding copyrights and authorship and the proper way to
> give credit and citation.
>
> I would also suggest that people, including myself, start treating the
> program and the help file more like an acadmic output if we are so
> keen on presenting them as academic outputs. This means the help file
> should be expanded to include a small reference section when
> appropriate.
>
> As I have mentioned before, giving citation is mandatory for anyone
> who borrows substantially from another person's work. There is no if's
> or but's about this. I don't make these rules. These are the academic
> rules and traditions dating back to the end of middle age when people
> involved in research realized the need for systematic citation in
> order to make any academic collaboration possible.
>
> In the past, people have proudly declared that their programs are
> superior to the original without mentioning where they got it in the
> first place. Giving citations will prevent this kind of nonsense.
>
> Imagine yourself in a situtation where your own work has been
> exploited in this manner. Only sure way to prevent that from happening
> is to refuse to share work, which is not good for anybody, or have a
> system in place that protects everyone's work and their reputation
> against this type of nonsense.
>
> Roy
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>
--
Joachim Landström
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