Re: st: how to cite Stata helpfile

[Maarten Buis <maartenlbuis@gmail.com>]

-betafit- is user written by me, Nick Cox and Stephen Jenkins, so the
last suggestion made by Rich applies for that command.

-- Maarten


> At 03:05 PM 11/7/2011, Jet wrote:
>>
>> HI, how to cite a Stata helpfile (e.g., betafit) if needed? Wonder if
>> there is any suggested way to do so. Thanks!
>
> The Stata 12 User's Guide says
>
> The suggested citation for this software is
> StataCorp. 2011. Stata: Release 12. Statistical Software. College Station,
> TX: StataCorp LP.

--On Tue, Nov 8, 2011 at 12:07 AM, Richard Williams wrote:
> For a built in command, I suppose you could also cite the appropriate
> reference manual. I would especially do that if I was directly quoting from
> the manual. The manual usually has the same text as the help file, and more.
>
> For a user-written command --
>
> I would suggest seeing if the help file includes a suggested citation. If
> you  are using one of my programs, my strong preference is that you cite one
> of my published articles, assuming I have written a relevant article for the
> command.
>
> Barring that, or in addition to, you might try citing the repec pages. For
> example, the user-written ivreg2 help file makes this suggestion:
>
> ---------------
> ivreg2 is not an official Stata command. It is a free contribution to the
> research community, like a paper. Please cite it as such:
>
>    Baum, C.F., Schaffer, M.E., Stillman, S. 2010.  ivreg2: Stata module for
> extended instrumental variables/2SLS, GMM and AC/HAC, LIML and k-class
> regression. http://ideas.repec.org/c/boc/bocode/s425401.html
> ---------------
>
> As to when to cite - my own feeling is that if you are using a user-written
> estimation command, you should cite the authors of that command. Utilities,
> probably not, unless they had a really major impact on the analysis. If you
> do feel a deep debt of gratitude for some utilities, perhaps those authors
> could be mentioned in the acknowledgments instead. Citations of published
> work are what is going to help most scholars the most, but other types of
> appreciation are nice as well.


--------------------------
Maarten L. Buis
Institut fuer Soziologie
Universitaet Tuebingen
Wilhelmstrasse 36
72074 Tuebingen
Germany


http://www.maartenbuis.nl
--------------------------

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