Software is essential for scientific research and is applied in research methodology, data analysis, and knowledge dissemination. Scientists believe that software plays a crucial role in their research process, so it is necessary to recognize the contribution of software developers. This study aims to investigate the current situation of software citation in scientific research and explore possible solutions to improve its sustainability via full-text content analysis. There is a gap between the use and the citation of software in scientific publications, and the lack of information in software citations has been a source of both failure and improvement of software in scientific research. We found various deficiencies that hinder the durability of software citations and put forward some suggestions for their stability and development, such as designing software citation standards, promoting free open licensing of scientific software, and implementing strict peer review of software citations.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.