[Cod-bugs] About the correct way to cite and reference COD data

[Saulius Gražulis]

Dear Cristopher,

thank you for inquiry and sorry for not answering sooner! I will give 
some recommendations regarding COD citation below:

On 2024-04-09 05:15, CRISTOPHER ANTONIO MARTINS DE MOURA wrote:
> I am a doctoral student in Ouro Preto, Brazil.
> Initially, I would like to thank you for the ease of access to data. I 
> really like too much this database!
>
> I noticed that when using the data in my research, it is necessary to 
> reference the COD through 9 references, as shown in the link 
> https://wiki.crystallography.net/cod/citing/.
>
> I would like to know if I should also cite and reference the authors 
> of each data used.
>
> For example:
> I am using the XRD pattern data of "COD ID 5000035" in my article. 
> Should I cite Will et al. (1988) and insert the bibliographic 
> reference in my article?
>
This is definitely a good move! You will give a credit to the authors 
who created the record.

Another way to cite COD entry as a database record is suggested in our 
conference talks [1]. Briefly, you can either a) reference a CIF data 
stream (CID) or b) a "landing page" (HTML) and also either 1) reference 
a particular COD record revision that you have used or 2) reference a 
COD record, where the resolved ID (URL) will point at the newest curated 
revision of this record.

Examples (from [1]):

- for a 1a combination (please note the "@176759" at the end of the URL, 
which is the revision number):

> Srivastava, R. C.; Klooster, W. T.; Koetzle, T. F. “Neutron Structures 
> of Ammonium Fluoroberyllate” (1999) The Crystallography Open Database, 
> rev. 176759. The COD Advisory Board (eds.), 
> http://www.crystallography.net/cod/2002926.cif@176759 [Retrieved 
> 2016-09-21 16:48 EEST]

- for a 2b combination:

> Srivastava, R. C.; Klooster, W. T.; Koetzle, T. F. “Neutron Structures 
> of Ammonium Fluoroberyllate” (1999) The Crystallography Open Database. 
> The COD Advisory Board (eds.), 
> http://www.crystallography.net/cod/2002926.html [Retrieved 2016-09-21 
> 16:48 EEST]

Feel free to adjust this format to you journal's citation style (please 
regard the COD title as the title of a collective/periodic work and the 
COD AB as a collective editor of that work).

Currently, the authors will most probably get more credit for their work 
if you cite the original publication, as you suggested. But the data 
citation "ecosystem" is changing, and I anticipate that the method 
suggested by me in [1] will become the mainstream one, especially when 
funding agencies and universities start recognising such citations as a 
part of your scientific output :). Of course you can add both citations ;)

These methods are good when you are using just one or several entries 
from the COD and discuss them in more detail (or use them for the 
particular material identification). If you do statistics on a large 
number of COD entries (> 10), such method becomes impractical. In that 
case I suggest providing a list, in a CSV [2,3] or TSV [4] format, of 
the used COD entries and their revisions, and submit this file as a 
supplementary material for your paper. As a bare minimum, such file 
should contain COD IDs and COD revision numbers; if the space permits, 
it should contain the full bibliography of the original paper and the 
COD URL in addition to the COD ID information (as additional columns).

HTH,
Saulius

Refs.:

[1] Gražulis, S. (2016) COD data citation. In the presentation "The 
Crystallography Open Database" at the OpenCon 2016, Kaunas, Lithuania 
(slides 18 & 19). URL: 
http://www.crystallography.net/cod/archives/2016/slides/2016-Kaunas-OpenCon2016/slides.pdf 
[accessed 2024-04-16T14:52+03:00]

[2] Shafranovich, Y. (2005) Common format and MIME type for 
Comma-separated values (CSV) files. Series: Request for Comments, 
(4180), 1-8. IETF, RFC Editor. DOI: https://doi.org/10.17487/RFC4180 
URL: https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4180

[3] Library of Congress (2021) CSV, Comma separated values (RFC 4180). 
1-8. URL: 
https://www.loc.gov/preservation/digital/formats/fdd/fdd000323.shtml 
[accessed 2024-04-18T09:21+03:00]

[4] Library of Congress (2021) TSV, TAB-separated values. 1-6. URL: 
https://www.loc.gov/preservation/digital/formats/fdd/fdd000533.shtml 
[accessed 2024-04-18T09:22+03:00]

-- 
Dr. Saulius Gražulis
Vilnius University Institute of Biotechnology, Saulėtekio al. 7
LT-10257 Vilnius, Lietuva (Lithuania)
mobile: (+370-684)-49802, (+370-614)-36366

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