For data to be used by others, there need to be standardized ways to identify, cite, and link the datasets and parts of datasets. Data citation is this method that provides references to datasets. This is similar to the citation methods for journal articles or books.
Data citation fosters data accessibility, discoverability, and reuse. It also promotes creator attribution, and allows tracking of use to measure the impact of a dataset.
Identifiers are strings of characters that uniquely identify an object, in this case a dataset. A commonly used type of identifier is a digital object identifier (DOI), although may other types of identifiers exist. If you are submitting your data to a data repository, they will often choose the identifiers to be used.
There are no universal established standards for what should be included in a data citation. However, certain data elements are recommended such as:
At a bare minimum a citation should include:
Creator (Year) Title. Publisher. Identifier. |
The Data Citation Index (DCI) on the Web of Science Platform provides access to research data from repositories across disciplines and around the world. This allows researchers to accurately assess a dataset's importance and maximize research efforts.
Use DCI to:
DataCite is an organization that provides persistent identifiers (DOIs) for research data. Their goal is to help the research community locate, identify, and cite research data with confidence.
Use DataCite to:
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