Crossref Data & Software Citation Deposit Guide for Publishers

Crossref ensures that links to scholarly literature persist over time through the Digital Object Identifier (DOI). We also provide infrastructure to the community by linking the publications to associated works and resources through the metadata that publishers deposit at publication, making research easy to find, cite, link, and assess. Links to data resources (i.e., data citations) are a core part of this service.

Publishers deposit the data citations by including them in their content registration metadata  as references and/or relation type. No new workflows are required in the deposit process as part of the standard, existing content registration process. Once deposited, data citations across journals (and publishers) are then aggregated and made freely available for the community to retrieve and reuse in a single, shared location.

In the metadata deposit, publishers deposit links to data for their content in two places:

1. Bibliographic references: Publishers include the data citation into the deposit of bibliographic references for each publication. Here, publishers follow the general process for depositing references and applying tags as applicable
2. Relations type: Publishers assert the data link in the relationship section of the metadata deposit, where they connect the publication to a variety of associated online resources (e.g., data and software, supporting information, protocols, videos, published peer reviews, preprint, conference papers, etc.) in a structured way, making discovery more powerful and accurate. Here, publishers can identify data which are direct outputs of the research results if this is known. This level of specificity is optional, but can support scientific validation and research funding management.

Each has a distinct advantage so both are encouraged where possible.

Bibliographic references

Publishers add data and software citations into the bibliographic references and deposit the entire set as part of the standard registration process. To do so, publishers follow the general process for depositing references (step-by-step instructions).

Publishers can deposit the full data or software citation as a unstructured reference. For guidance here, we recommend that authors cite the dataset or software based on community best practice (Joint Declaration of Data Citation Principles, FORCE11 citation placement, FORCE11 Software Citation Principles).

<citation key="ref=3">
   <unstructured_citation>Morinha F, Dávila JA, Estela B, Cabral JA, Frías Ó, González JL, Travassos P, Carvalho D, Milá B, Blanco G (2017) Data from: Extreme genetic structure in a social bird species despite high dispersal capacity. Dryad Digital Repository. http://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.684v0</unstructured_citation\>
</citation>

Or they can employ any number of reference tags currently accepted by Crossref.

<citation key="ref2">
  <doi>10.5061/dryad.684v0</doi>
  <cYear>2017</cYear>
  <author>Morinha F, Dávila JA, Estela B, Cabral JA, Frías Ó, González JL, Travassos P, Carvalho D, Milá B, Blanco G</author>
</citation>

Existing reference tags were originally established to match article and book references and do not readily apply to data or software. We are exploring JATS4R recommendations to expand the current collection and better support these citations. We also encourage additional suggestions from the community.

Relations type

Data and software citations via relation type enables precise tagging of the dataset and its specific relationship to the research results published. To tag the data & software citation in the metadata deposit, we ask for the description of the dataset & software (optional), dataset & software identifier and identifier type (DOI, PMID, PMCID, PURL, ARK, Handle, UUID, ECLI, and URI), and relationship type. In general, use the relation type “references” for data and software resources. Publishers who wish to specify that the data or software resource was generated as part of the research results can use the “isSupplementedBy” relation type. This level of specificity is optional, but can support scientific validation and research funding management. See the list of controlled options for accepted identifier types.

See examples below for asserting a relationship to data and software in the metadata deposit:

The two methods are independent and can thus be used exclusively or jointly. Each caters to a different set of conditions, and each has unique benefits and limitations. We recommend that publishers use both methods at this time where possible for optimum specificity and coverage. 

All of this metadata - sent to Crossref - make possible the possibilities of data mining and building up pictures of data citations, linking, and relationships. Whether the citations come from the authors in the reference list or the DAS or they are extracted by the publisher and then deposited, Crossref collects them across publishers. We then make the aggregate set freely available via Crossref’s APIs in multiple interfaces (REST, OAI-­PMH, OpenURL) and formats (XML and JSON). Data is made openly available to a wide host of parties across the extended research ecosystem including funders, research organisations, technology and service providers, indexers, research data frameworks such as Scholix, etc.

Examples

Data citation as relation (full metadata deposit)

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<doi_batch version="4.4.0" xmlns="http://www.crossref.org/schema/4.4.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.crossref.org/schema/4.4.0 http://www.crossref.org/schemas/crossref4.4.0.xsd">
  <head>
    <doi_batch_id>20170807</doi_batch_id>
    <timestamp>2017080715731</timestamp>
    <depositor>
       <depositor_name>Crossref</depositor_name>
       <email_address>support@crossref.org</email_address>
    </depositor>
    <registrant>Crossref</registrant>
  </head>
  <body>
    <journal>
       <journal_metadata language="en">
          <full_title>Molecular Ecology</full_title>
          <abbrev_title>Mol Ecol</abbrev_title>
          <issn>09621083</issn>
       </journal_metadata>
       <journal_issue>
          <publication_date media_type="print">
             <month>05</month>
             <year>2017</year>
          </publication_date>
          <journal_volume>
             <volume>26</volume>
          </journal_volume>
          <issue>10</issue>
       </journal_issue>
       <journal_article publication_type="full_text">
          <titles>
             <title>Extreme genetic structure in a social bird species despite high dispersal capacity</title>
          </titles>
          <contributors>
             <person_name contributor_role="author" sequence="first">
               <given_name>Francisco</given_name>
               <surname>Morinha</surname>
               <affiliation>Laboratory of Applied Ecology; Centre for Research and Technology of Agro-Environment and Biological Sciences (CITAB); University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro (UTAD); Quinta de Prados 5000-801 Vila Real Portugal</affiliation>
<affiliation>Morinha Lab - Laboratory of Biodiversity and Molecular Genetics; Rua Dr. José Figueiredo, lote L-2, Lj B5 5000-562 Vila Real Portugal</affiliation>
             </person_name>
             <person_name contributor_role="author" sequence="additional">
                <given_name>José A.</given_name>
                <surname>Dávila</surname>
                <affiliation>Instituto de Investigación en Recursos Cinegéticos; IREC (CSIC, UCLM, JCCM); Ciudad Real Spain</affiliation>
             </person_name>
             <person_name contributor_role="author" sequence="additional">
                <given_name>Estela</given_name>
                <surname>Bastos</surname>
                <affiliation>Laboratory of Applied Ecology; Centre for Research and Technology of Agro-Environment and Biological Sciences (CITAB); University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro (UTAD); Quinta de Prados 5000-801 Vila Real Portugal</affiliation>
<affiliation>Department of Genetics and Biotechnology; School of Life and Environmental Sciences; University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro (UTAD); Quinta de Prados 5000-801 Vila Real Portugal</affiliation>
             </person_name>
          </contributors>
          <publication_date media_type="print">
             <month>05</month>
             <year>2017</year>
          </publication_date>
          <publication_date media_type="online">
             <month>03</month>
             <day>13</day>
             <year>2017</year>
          </publication_date>
          <pages>
             <first_page>2812</first_page>
             <last_page>2825</last_page>
          </pages>
          <program xmlns="http://www.crossref.org/relations.xsd">
             <related_item>
               <description>Data from: Extreme genetic structure in a social bird species despite high dispersal capacity</description>
               <inter_work_relation relationship-type="references" identifier-type="doi">10.5061/dryad.684v0</inter_work_relation>
             </related_item>
          </program>
          <archive_locations>
             <archive name="Portico"/>
          </archive_locations>
          <doi_data>
             <doi>10.1111/mec.14069</doi>
             <resource>http://doi.wiley.com/10.1111/mec.14069</resource>
          </doi_data>
       </journal_article>
    </journal>
  </body>
</doi_batch>


Data citation as relation (resource deposit)

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
  <doi_batch version="4.3.6" xmlns="http://www.crossref.org/doi_resources_schema/4.3.6"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.crossref.org/doi_resources_schema/4.3.6 http://www.crossref.org/schemas/doi_resources4.3.6.xsd">
    <head>
       <doi_batch_id>123456</doi_batch_id>
          <depositor>
          <depositor_name>Crossref</depositor_name>
          <email_address>support@crossref.org</email_address>
       </depositor>
    </head>
    <body>
       <doi_relations>
          <doi>10.1111/xxxx.xxxx</doi>
          <program xmlns="http://www.crossref.org/relations.xsd">
             <related_item>
             <description>Data from: Extreme genetic structure in a social bird species despite high dispersal capacity</description>
             <inter_work_relation relationship-type="references" identifier-type="doi">10.5061/dryad.684v0</inter_work_relation>
             </related_item>
          </program>
       </doi_relations>
    </body>
  </doi_batch>