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Quantifying the uptake of user-written commands over time
Babak Choodari-Oskooei1, Tim P Morris2
1Hub for Trials Methodology Research, MRC Clinical Trials Unit, University College London, London, UK.
Summary
This study introduces the ssccount command for Stata, enabling researchers to track user-written package downloads. This provides a measure of software impact, addressing the need for proper credit and impact demonstration.
Area of Science:
- Statistical Software
- Data Science
- Research Impact Measurement
Background:
- User-friendly software is crucial for adopting new statistical methods.
- Stata allows custom command creation and sharing via Statistical Software Components (SSC) at Boston College.
- Authors of statistical programs often lack proper citation and recognition for their work.
Purpose of the Study:
- To address the challenge of measuring the impact of user-written statistical software.
- To provide a method for researchers to demonstrate the impact of their software contributions to funders.
- To introduce a tool for tracking the usage and impact of Stata packages.
Main Methods:
- Utilizing the Statistical Software Components (SSC) archive at Boston College.
- Accessing download data for user-written Stata packages from July 2007 onwards.
- Employing the newly developed `ssccount` command for data summarization.
Main Results:
- The `ssccount` command can retrieve monthly download statistics for Stata packages.
- Download counts serve as a quantifiable measure of a software package's impact over time.
- This method facilitates proper citation and recognition for statistical software authors.
Conclusions:
- The `ssccount` command offers a practical solution for measuring the impact of user-written Stata software.
- Tracking downloads encourages proper citation and acknowledges the contributions of software developers.
- This approach helps researchers meet the growing demand for demonstrating research impact to funding bodies.
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