Citing Collections

Overview| Features | Examples | Cite As | Version History

Overview

Good practice for citing collections is to cite them in the body of the manuscript and include them in the reference list. Include a stable identifier in the reference, either the digital object identifier (DOI) or handle.

It is recommended to archive research data in a long-term accessible repository aligned with the FAIR principles to support the reproducibility and validation of research results. “Supplemental Data” available from the journal article on a publisher’s website is a practice that is being phased out as it doesn’t align with FAIR principles.

Why is citing digital assets a good practice:

• Supports reproducibility and validation of research results
• Allows reuse of the digital asset
• Gives credit to the producers
• Associated with increased citations
• Improved provenance for digital assets
• Helps to track the reuse of digital assets.

Features

Features in the Data Access Portal that support citing include:

• Every collection landing page includes a formatted citation
• Data and software collection types that are publicly accessible and include files get a permanent identifier called a digital object identifier (DOI)
• Data and software collection types that are publicly accessible and do not include files get a permanent identifier called a handle
• Service collection types get a permanent identifier called a handle.

You can learn more about how permanent identifiers are used in the Data Access Portal. 

Cite As

Easily create a citation using the ‘Cite as’ feature available from the collection landing page. The image below illustrates the ‘Cite as’ feature.

You may need to modify the citation format to align with the rules of a publisher.

The use of a DOI or handle in a citation will help facilitate citation analysis for tracking the reuse of digital assets.

The ‘Cite as’ feature on a collection landing page aligns with the following data citation and software citation guidelines:

• Data Citation Synthesis Group: Joint Declaration of Data Citation Principles. Martone M. (ed.) San Diego CA: FORCE11; 2014 DOI: 10.25490/a97f-egyk 
• Smith AM, Katz DS, Niemeyer KE, FORCE11 Software Citation Working Group. (2016) Software Citation Principles. PeerJ Computer Science 2:e86. DOI: 10.7717/peerj-cs.86
• Katz DS, Chue Hong NP, Clark T et al. Recognizing the value of software: a software citation guide [version 2; peer review: 2 approved]. F1000Research 2021, 9:1257, https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.26932.2  

Version history 

Collections also display their version history on the landing page. This shows the title, permanent identifier, publication date, and version number of each version of the collection. The versions feature also displays a permanent identifier to use to cite all versions of the collection. This permanent identifier will always resolve to the most recent version of the collection: 

You can use the permanent identifiers associated with a particular version to cite that specific version of the collection. This can be useful if you used a specific data or software release in your research and it is important for understanding your research that this specific version was used, and not an earlier or later version. 

However, if you want to make sure that anyone who follows up on your citation finds the latest version of the collection when you cite it, then you should use the ‘Cite all versions?’ permanent identifier. Even if there have been updates made to the collection since you cited it, this identifier will always take you to the latest version. 

Examples

To cite a collection the following three elements are required:

Cited in the body of the publication

Included in the reference list

Includes a globally resolvable unique identifier (DOI or handle) in the reference.

Data Collection

1.  

Example from Davies, P., Crosbie, R. 2018. Mapping the spatial distribution of chloride deposition across Australia, Journal of Hydrology, 561, June, pp. 76-88, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2018.03.051.

Cited in the body of the publication:

“The best estimate of the chloride deposition across Australia is presented in Fig. 7 along with the 5th and 95th percentiles. These datasets are available for download via the CSIRO Data Access Portal (Davies and Crosbie, 2014).”

Included in the reference list and contains the globally resolvable unique identifier (DOI):

“Davies, P., Crosbie, R., 2014. Australian chloride deposition rate. v1. CSIRO. Data Collection. http://doi.org/10.4225/08/545BEE54CD4FC.”

Software Collection

Example from Petingco, M.C., Casada, M.E., Maghirang, R.G., et al. 2020. Influence of Particle Shape and Contact Parameters on DEM-Simulated Bulk Density of Wheat, Transactions of the ASABE. 63, 6, pp. 1657-1672, https://doi.org/10.13031/trans.13718

Cited in the body of the publication:

 

Included in the reference list and contains the globally resolvable unique identifier (DOI):

 

Service Collection

Example from Song, Z., Bao, Y., Zhang, D. et al. 2020. Centuries of monthly and 3-hourly global ocean wave data for past, present, and future climate research. Sci Data 7, 226, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-020-0566-8

Cited in the body of the publication:

“…from 1979 to 2009¹⁰, GFDL Wave Hindcast from 1981 to 2009¹¹, Ifremer Wave Hindcast from 1990 to present¹², CAWCR Wave Hindcast from 1979 to present¹³, JAR-55-Wave from 1958–2012¹⁴, and other similar datasets, have been carried out worldwide.”

 Included in the reference list and contains the globally resolvable unique identifier (permalink):

13. Durrant, T., Hemer, M., Smith, G., Trenham, C. & Greenslade, D. CAWCR Wave Hindcast-Aggregated Collection. CSIRO Service, http://hdl.handle.net/102.100.100/137152?index=1 (2019).