Software item type

[rmzelle]

Per https://github.com/citation-style-language/styles/pull/1704/files#r41761578

(@adam3smith)

[adam3smith]

Software is increasingly being cited
http://blog.datacite.org/software-citation-workflows/
And both Mendeley and Zotero have computer program item types. This seems like an obvious addition.

[rmzelle]

Preferred CSL item type name? "program", "computer_program", "software"? I think I prefer "program".

[bdarcus]

Program could be confusing.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/program

On Wed, Oct 21, 2015 at 9:51 AM, Rintze M. Zelle notifications@github.com
wrote:

Preferred CSL item type name? "program", "computer_program", "software"? I
think I prefer "program".

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Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub
#69 (comment).

[rmzelle]

Is "software" too general? Otherwise I guess we'll go with "computer_program", then.

[adam3smith]

I actually like software, don't see how that'd be too general (if anything that's a plus), and it's nice and pithy.

[rmzelle]

Fine with me!

[slint]

@rmzelle Is there any status update (or PR in https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema) for this "software" type addition?

[adam3smith]

no -- item type additions happen in new CSL releases and those take time to prepare (no need for a PR -- the work here is not the actual change in the schema, which is trivial, but reaching agreement on what should and shouldn't be in a next release).

[rmzelle]

While I've been procrastinating for over 4 years now when it comes to working on a new CSL release, I have some good hopes we can rekindle the fire and push out a (small) update in 2017.

One reason I didn't feel much pressure is that adding new item types wasn't really feasible for Zotero 4.0.x, but this situation is about to change now that Zotero 5.0 has nearly arrived (while there are many more programs that use CSL, I didn't want to leave Zotero out in the cold, since they've been one of CSL's biggest institutional supporters). That's what I tell myself, anyways.

[njsmith]

I'm lurking on this issue because I'm hoping to see a solution for projects like duecredit that need a standard interchange format for citations, and in particular software citations -- right now AFAICT there really isn't any reasonable format for them to use.

[rmzelle]

@njsmith, yes, we're aware of the high interest in the community to improve software citation, so a new item type for software will almost certainly be added to the next CSL release. Can't provide a more precise ETA right now, though.