How do I reference Python in a scientific article or thesis?

python reference article
Eekhoorn picture Eekhoorn · Nov 24, 2012 · Viewed 15.8k times · Source

I'm writing a scientific article in which I used Python for simulations. How is the Python language properly referenced? Are there any articles in journals available I could link to?

This is also relevant for theses and dissertations in fields where Python is not commonly known.

Edit: See here for the answer: https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/5482/how-do-i-reference-the-python-programming-language-in-a-thesis-or-a-paper

Answer

Óscar López picture Óscar López · Nov 24, 2012

Well, in principle you could cite the language reference, but to tell the truth it'd be a bit weird to cite the programming language in use as a bibliographical reference. That's just a tool for your thesis or article, not a scientific body of work, and as such is not part of the foundations of your research - therefore there's no need to cite it IMHO. Unless your research happens to be in the general field of programming languages and Python in particular.

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