GFortran citation

[Tobias Burnus]

  Alex Couce wrote:
> I'm preparing a manuscript for being published in a scientific 
> journal, and I used GFortran for run some simulations. As long as I'm 
> grateful to you people for providing this valuable tool for free to 
> the community, I would like to give you credit by including a citation 
> on the paper. How shall I do that?

The question was asked before, cf. 
http://gcc.gnu.org/ml/fortran/2010-04/msg00287.html, and the answers were:

* I think "GFortran, Gnu compiler collection (gcc)" Version 4.4.3 or 
what ever version number would be sufficient.

* I would think that one should contact an editor of the journal or 
publication for the proper citation format [1]. That being said, at a 
minimui, it is 'GNU Compiler Collection' and I'd would include 
http://gcc.gnu.org/.

It also depends whether it is more a compiler comparison paper - in 
which case the version number and a proper citation in the literature 
list is required - or whether the simulation just happens to be compiled 
with gfortran (instead of another Fortran compiler). For the former, you 
need a proper citation including the version number - following the 
journal's style. For the latter, you could do the same or you could just 
mention GNU Fortran (gfortran) and the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) in 
the text or in the acknowledgement.

Due to the way GCC (and gfortran) was developed, there is no scientific 
journal article which can be cited (as often asked by creators of 
scientific software) - and due to the large number of developers, 
thanking individual developers is also not practical.*

Tobias

PS: By the way, you have already acknowledged GNU Fortran and the GNU 
Compiler Collection when writing this question ("I'm grateful to you 
people for providing this valuable tool"). Thanks for that!

* Interestingly, if a package becomes widely used and gets older, one 
urge to cite it somehow drops; for instance, I have never cited LAPACK - 
or have seen a paper citing it - even though the authors ask for it,
cf. http://www.netlib.org/lapack/faq.html#1.3 - on the other hand, the 
wide spread use of LAPACK is already an acknowledgement.