1. Understanding research method-tool package through scientific texts
Kai Li
10/18/2018

2. Why and what Tools / Research methods Citations / Name mentions
Software “takes command” in societies as well as science.
Yet software and the methods implemented in software are hardly first-class research objects:
They are difficult to be “validated, preserved, cited, and credited;”
They are largely invisible from quantitative studies of science, especially large-scale studies.
Tools / Research methods
Citations / Name mentions
Scientific texts

3. Case study: the impact of lme4 R package
The lme4 package is designed to fit linear and generalized linear mixed-effects models.
It was developed in the early 21th century (2003?) and has been actively maintained since.
It is one of the most highly cited software packages:
Both Bates’ 2015 paper and the lme4 CRAN page have been cited for over 10k times on Google Scholar.
But are there other expressions of impact?
And what can we learn from evaluating the impact of this software?