Out of Cite, Out of Mind: The Current State of Practice, Policy, and Technology for the Citation of Data

Abstract

The relatively new practice of making bibliographic references to data sets with formal citations begins to address long-standing problems limiting our collective ability to locate data and to reuse them effectively in advancing science. References made and citations received support a research infrastructure to provide the necessary recognition and reward of data work, in addition to providing attribution detail, facilitating future access, and fostering cross-collaboration and investigation. They are the links between the data and the published research results needed to maintain the integrity of the scientific method. Some research funders have begun to require that publicly funded research data be deposited with various data centers. As these practices become better established, the ability to detect, locate, obtain, and understand the data from prior research will be circumscribed by our ability to have a sufficient description of those data: a citation. Based on a review of emerging practices and analysis of existing literature on citation practices, we have identified the following set of “first principles” for data citation: