How to cite a User's Guide?

Hi,

I would like to put a reference in an article with the Image Processing User's Guide. I found on Google Scholar some old bibtex entry:

 @book{thompson1995image,
  title={Image Processing Toolbox: For Use with MATLAB;[user's Guide]},
  author={Thompson, C.M. and Shure, L.},
  year={1995},
  publisher={MathWorks}
 }

but I would like to refer to the latest user's guide: R2011b.

What is the best way to do this?

Thanks,

Razvan

Answer 1

[Daniel Shub]

Using www.mathworks.com/help/pdf_doc/gads/gads_tb.pdf and APA style as an example: I would treat it as a mix between a "Report From a Private Organizationin" (<http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/09/>) and an Electronic Books (<http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/10/)>. Leading to the following citation:

Mathworks. (2011). Global Optimization Toolbox: User's Guide (r2011b). Retrieved November 10, 2011 from www.mathworks.com/help/pdf_doc/gads/gads_tb.pdf

Noting that I am not sure on if it should be Mathworks, The Mathworks, or The MathWorks. I would also want to double check that I handled the subtitle of User's Guide correctly.

I would also consider looking around and seeing if I could find a more permanent link to the current version.

[Walter Roberson]

The Copyright notices I was looking at last night all said

The MathWorks, Inc.

(except for a very small number that did not have the comma and were obviously incorrect exceptions)

[Daniel Shub]

It was more of a question about how APA handles company names.

Answer 2

[Jan]

The latest user's guide is currently the one of 2011b, but it will be 2012a in the near future, and then 2012b, etc. Only the documentation of current release can be accessed, if you do not have a MATLAB license. Therefore citing a document, which is not available in general, is of limited use only.

[Walter Roberson]

I do not have any licenses attached to my MATLAB Central account, but I am able to access the previous release documentation.

At the top of any of the 2011b reference pages, there is a link to view the documentation from previous releases.

[Jan]

Yes, there is a link. But the access of the documentation of former releases is restricted to users who are associated to a license.

[Daniel Shub]

@Jan, the fact that a new edition is expected is not a reason to not cite the current edition. Further, just because a key piece of information was published in an obscure place and difficult to get, doesn't mean you should give the credit to someone else. Now the author is trying to provide a general reference (my guess given it is a user's guide), then it makes more sense to cite an easily available source.

Answer 3

[Grzegorz Knor]

I would like to cite Global Optimization Toolbox User’s Guide.

What is (in your opinion) the best way to do this?

Answer 4

[Daniel Shub]

I am going to go with don't cite it. User's guides are secondary sources and you tend to be better off citing primary sources.

If you are going to cite a MATLAB user's guide, you need to cite the version you looked at. The MATLAB user's guides are available in a variety of formats. The easiest to cite woudl either be the hard copy (if you have it) or the online documentation (citing it as an electronic book).

[Yogini Prabhu]

yes looks like not citing each documentation itself, is the best option