Data citation

Citations have the capacity to serve as a proxy estimate of uptake or use by the community of ones products. The range of acceptable scientific products is rapidly expanding and datasets, in many forms, continue to serve as pivotal resources; big data syntheses are reshaping the standards for acceptable derived evidence. In this quick overview on citing data, data citations are defined, general rules provided, and elements such as versioning and persistent identifiers are described. The cultural and scientific discovery implications of data citations are also discussed focusing on emerging linked-data futures.