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What Drives Package Authors to Participate in the R Project for Statistical Computing? Exploring Motivation, Values, and Work Design

One of the cornerstones of the R system for statistical computing is the multitude of packages contributed by numerous package authors. This makes an extremely broad range of statistical techniques and other quantitative methods freely available. So far no empirical study has investigated psychological factors that drive authors to participate in the R project. This article presents a
study of R package authors, collecting data on different types of participation (number of packages, participation in mailing lists, participation in conferences), three psychological scales (types of motivation, psychological values, and work design characteristics), as well as various sociodemographic factors. The data are
analyzed using item response models and subsequent generalized linear models, showing that the most important determinants for participation are a hybrid form of motivation and the social characteristics of the work design. Other factors are found to have less impact or influence only specific aspects of participation. (authors' abstract)

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:VIENNA/oai:epub.wu-wien.ac.at:4702
Date January 2015
CreatorsMair, Patrick, Hofmann, Eva, Gruber, Kathrin, Hatzinger, Reinhold, Zeileis, Achim, Hornik, Kurt
PublisherNational Academy of Sciences
Source SetsWirtschaftsuniversität Wien
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeArticle, NonPeerReviewed
Formatapplication/pdf
Relationhttp://www.pnas.org/content/early/2015/11/04/1506047112.full.pdf, http://www.pnas.org, http://www.pnas.org/content/suppl/2015/11/04/1506047112.DCSupplemental, http://epub.wu.ac.at/4702/

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