Citing EGSnrc

General citation

Please cite the EGSnrc software using its Digital Object Identifier (doi):

I Kawrakow, DWO Rogers, E Mainegra-Hing, F Tessier, RW Townson, BRB Walters.
EGSnrc toolkit for Monte Carlo simulation of ionizing radiation transport.
doi:10.4224/40001303 (2020)

The first two authors are I Kawrakow and DWO Rogers, and that the remaining authors are listed alphabetically. The year should match the most recent release of EGSnrc (which is typically the current year). The identifier doi:10.4224/40001303 resolves to github.com/nrc-cnrc/EGSnrc/, but it is preferable to cite the perennial doi, in case the code repository is moved to another location in the future.

Citing a specific version

If the citation pertains to simulation results obtained with the EGSnrc software, indicate the specific version used, noting the commit hash or yearly release tag, for example:

I Kawrakow, DWO Rogers, E Mainegra-Hing, F Tessier, RW Townson, BRB Walters.
EGSnrc toolkit for Monte Carlo simulation of ionizing radiation transport.
doi:10.4224/40001303 [commit 7b99451] (2020)

or

I Kawrakow, DWO Rogers, E Mainegra-Hing, F Tessier, RW Townson, BRB Walters.
EGSnrc toolkit for Monte Carlo simulation of ionizing radiation transport.
doi:10.4224/40001303 [release v2020] (2020)

In either case, the citation year ought to match the year of the specified commit or release. If using a commit hash, ensure that it exists on the master or develop branch of the EGSnrc repository. Commits on other branches are considered temporary and will likely be pruned when they are merged into the main project branches.

BibTex entry

Here is a sample BibTeX entry for citing EGSnrc:

@misc{egsnrc,
  title  = {EGSnrc toolkit for Monte Carlo simulation of ionizing radiation transport},
  author = {Kawrakow, I and Rogers, DWO and Mainegra-Hing, E and Tessier, F and Townson, RW and Walters, BRB},
  howpublished = {\href{https://doi.org/10.4224/40001303}{doi:10.4224/40001303} [release v2020]},
  year = {2020}
}

If the \href command is not available, via \usepackage{hyperref}, then simply use howpublished = {doi:10.4224/40001303 [release v2020]},.

Citing EGSnrc with code modifications

EGSnrc is a free software toolkit and therefore it can be modified to suit specific needs. If the source code is modified at all, then the proper way to cite the software version is to provide the closest commit from the official repository (as the commit hash or the yearly release tag), along with a list of revisions. See Reporting code modifications for the recommended way to do this.