Abstract

The purpose of this research is to explore the phenomenon of the sharing, reuse, and citation of research software. These practices are playing an increasingly important role in scholarly communication. The researchers found that the citation and reuse of research software are currently uncommon or at least not reflected in the Data Citation Index (DCI). Such citation was observed, however, for the newer software in a number of prominent repositories. The repositories Comprehensive R Archive Network (CRAN) and Zenodo received the most formal software citations. The researchers observed both formal and informal forms of citation when researchers reused software. The latter form involves mentioning research software in passing in the main text of articles, while formal citations appear in the references section. In addition, our comparative analysis helps to explain the phenomenon of self-citation of research software.