Because good research needs good data

Joint statement on data citation from STM publishers and DataCite

A joint statement on data citation was signed by Eefke Smit of STM and Adam Farquhar of Datacite at Datacite's summer meeting in Copenhagen last week (June 14). 

Kevin Ashley | 20 June 2012

Eefke Smit and Adam Farquhar sign the agreement

A joint statement on data citation was signed by Eefke Smit of STM and Adam Farquhar of Datacite at Datacite's summer meeting in Copenhagen last week (June 14).

The statement is notable for its simplicity and because it clearly identifies actions that are in the common interest of data archives, publishers and researchers. It encourages each of those groups to do things that are under their control and which bring benefit to the person taking the action and to the other actors involved.

For example, it begins by encouraging authors of research papers to deposit their data in 'trustworthy and reliable' data archives. That's something only they can do, and it is a necessary prerequisite to making the data citable.

As research from Heather Piwowar and from Pienta, Alter & Lyle (amongst others) has shown, it also brings a benefit to the researchers - increase impact, via citations or other measures, for their research.

Similarly, the archives and publishers are both asked to enable and make visible bi-directional linking between data and publication using commonly-accepted standards. Action by one encourages action by the other and all stand to gain. The statement continues by saying explicitly that the goal of these actions is increased reuse of research data - a fundamental goal for data archives.

The key points of the statement are summarised in a contemporaneous Datacite blog post; the full statement, containing the background context, is on the STM site. Both parties encourage others to adopt and sign up to the statement, which mentions DOIs but does not mandate them.