How should the code be referenced in publications?
How it should not be cited: I keep track of publications that use the code for documentation to funding agencies. Before the advent of ADS the preferred reference was a citation to Hazy, the code’s documentation. However, ADS does not keep track of citations to unpublished work, including the more than 1000 such citations to Hazy (the Web of Science does, but unlike ADS, it is not free). Please do not cite Hazy. How it should be cited: Cloudy is a research project that involves the creative efforts of many people. It should be cited as follows: “Calculations were performed with version 05.07 of Cloudy, last described by Ferland et al. (1998).” The citation is the following review paper in PASP: Ferland, G. J. Korista, K.T. Verner, D.A. Ferguson, J.W. Kingdon, J.B. Verner, & E.M. 1998, PASP, 110, 761 The citation should explicitly mention the version of the code since some predictions do changes as the atomic data and treatment of physical processes improve. Old versions of the code are
The correct reference for versions 90 and 94 is the following review paper: Ferland, G. J., 2001, Hazy, a brief introduction to Cloudy 96.00 The citation should explicitly mentions the version of the code. This includes the sub-version, 0.01 in this example, and also the results of any hot fixes that have been applied. In this example the hot fixes brought the sub-version up to a. (This last part only changes if the hot fix affected predicted quantities.) There are two reasons for this citation. First, I need to track the use of the code so that I have something to show my funding agency. I can quickly pick up citations like the above using web-based literature searchers. Second, this citation provides a clear statement of the exact version of the code that was used so that anyone else can redo the calculations for themselves. The predictions of the code change with time due to changes in the atomic/molecular data base, improvements in the physical simulations, and bugs. With this prec
