I’m in the process of posting the requirements we are submitting for the DCXL add-in, in four parts. “Requirements” are the capabilities we want the proposed add-in to have, based on discussions with scientists and other stakeholders. For more information, read my two previous posts (here and here) and check out the new Requirements page for more details about each of the proposed the requirements.
Requirement 4: Generate a Citation for the Data File
I am a big believer in data citation. If you are a researcher, you are well aware of how much time and effort goes into collecting data. In my experience, I spent much more time collecting, documenting, and cleaning up data than I did writing the resulting publications. It is time we get credit for that hard work; the best way to make sure that happens is to cite others’ data, and provide others with the tools to cite your data. We want the add-in to make it as easy as possible for scientists to promote data citation of their work. The add-in will provide the capability of generating a citation from the data set’s existing metadata, potentially even including a persistent identifier such as a DOI. Read more about my take on data citation in this blog post, or at the DataCite website.
Stay tuned- the next DCXL post will be the final installment of the requirements saga.
