[FIX] Add research paper citation

 - Add CITATION.cff file
 - Add paper citation in bibtex format to README.md
 - Add bach script average_time.sh for calculating average time of running in case it is needed for speed comparision.

CITATION.cff

@@ -0,0 +1,31 @@
+cff-version: 1.2.0
+message: "If you use this software, please cite it as below."
+authors:
+- family-names: "Yajam"
+  given-names: "Habib"
+  orcid: "https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4344-7446"
+- family-names: "Ebadi"
+  given-names: "Elnaz"
+- family-names: "Akhaee"
+  given-names: "Mohammad Ali"
+title: "JABS: Just Another Blockchain Simulator"
+version: 0.2.0
+date-released: 2023-06-08
+url: "https://github.com/hyajam/jabs"
+preferred-citation:
+  type: article
+  authors:
+  - family-names: "Yajam"
+    given-names: "Habib"
+    orcid: "https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4344-7446"
+  - family-names: "Ebadi"
+    given-names: "Elnaz"
+  - family-names: "Akhaee"
+    given-names: "Mohammad Ali"
+  doi: "10.1109/TNSE.2023.3282916"
+  journal: "IEEE Transactions on Network Science and Engineering"
+  month: 6
+  start: 1 # First page number
+  end: 12 # Last page number
+  title: "Yajam, Habib and Ebadi, Elnaz and Akhaee, Mohammad Ali"
+  year: 2023

README.md

@@ -128,6 +128,23 @@ Steps for code contribution to the project:
 
 Distributed under the MIT License. See `LICENSE` for more information.
 
+## Publications ##
+
+Please use the following bibtex reference to cite our paper:
+
+```
+@ARTICLE{10144349,
+  author={Yajam, Habib and Ebadi, Elnaz and Akhaee, Mohammad Ali},
+  journal={IEEE Transactions on Network Science and Engineering}, 
+  title={JABS: A Blockchain Simulator for Researching Consensus Algorithms}, 
+  year={2023},
+  volume={},
+  number={},
+  pages={1-12},
+  doi={10.1109/TNSE.2023.3282916}
+  }
+```
+
 ## Contact ##
 
 Habib Yajam - [@habibyajam](https://twitter.com/HabibYajam) - [email protected]

scripts/average_time.sh

@@ -0,0 +1,26 @@
+
+# taken from: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/54920113/calculate-average-execution-time-of-a-program-using-bash
+# use as below:
+# $ source ./scripts/average_time.sh
+# $ avg_time 10 java -jar ./target/jabs.jar
+# can be used for any other program
+
+avg_time() {
+    #
+    # usage: avg_time n command ...
+    #
+    n=$1; shift
+    (($# > 0)) || return                   # bail if no command given
+    for ((i = 0; i < n; i++)); do
+        { time -p "$@" &>/dev/null; } 2>&1 # ignore the output of the command
+                                           # but collect time's output in stdout
+    done | awk '
+        /real/ { real = real + $2; nr++ }
+        /user/ { user = user + $2; nu++ }
+        /sys/  { sys  = sys  + $2; ns++}
+        END    {
+                 if (nr>0) printf("real %f\n", real/nr);
+                 if (nu>0) printf("user %f\n", user/nu);
+                 if (ns>0) printf("sys %f\n",  sys/ns)
+               }'
+}