Re: st: how to cite Stata helpfile

[Richard Williams <richardwilliams.ndu@gmail.com>]

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.
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.

-------------------------------------------
Richard Williams, Notre Dame Dept of Sociology
OFFICE: (574)631-6668, (574)631-6463
HOME:   (574)289-5227
EMAIL:  Richard.A.Williams.5@ND.Edu
WWW:    http://www.nd.edu/~rwilliam

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