Elsevier Implements Data Citation Standards to Encourage and Reward Authors for Sharing Research Data

AMSTERDAM, November 30, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Elsevier, a world-leading provider of scientific, technical and medical information products and services, today announced that it has implemented the FORCE11 Joint Declaration of Data Citation Principles for over 1800 journals. This means that authors publishing with Elsevier are now able to cite the research data underlying their article, contributing to attribution and encouraging research data sharing with research articles.

The FORCE11 data citation principles were launched in 2014 with the aim to make research data an integral part of the scholarly record. The principles recognized that a critical driver for increasing the availability of research data was to ensure authors receive credit for sharing through proper citation of research data. Elsevier was involved in drafting these principles and, along with many other publishers, data repositories and research institutions, endorsed them as an industry standard. Now, after working closely with other publishers within the Data Citation Implementation Pilot, Elsevier has incorporated them in its production and publication workflow in order to recognize and process data citations. Combined with new author guidance and education, this will encourage and reward researchers for sharing their research data.

Data citation provides a persistent and consistent way to link an article to a dataset. Authors can cite the data they generated for their research to ensure easy access to their data, or they can cite existing datasets they used in their research, thereby providing an indication of reuse. For readers, articles with data citations provide a more complete picture of the research that was carried out.

"To make archived and cited data really actionable, both for validation and verification of results, and for reuse in meta-analysis and discovery, we need a common approach by publishers and data archives" said Dr. Tim Clark, co-Leader of the NIH-funded Data Citation Implementation Pilot within FORCE11. "Developing and promoting these common approaches have been the driving rationale of the Data Citation Implementation Project and Elsevier and other early adopters of data citation are playing a crucial role in ensuring data citation is implemented uniformly across the ecosystem."

"Research Data is of the utmost importance for researchers in their advancement of knowledge," said Philippe Terheggen, Managing Director, Elsevier Journals. "Therefore, Elsevier fully supports the proper citation of such data. The implementation of data citation in our journals is an important step towards encouraging and rewarding authors for sharing research data. This is part of our wider efforts around research data which include the data repository Mendeley Data and data journals such as Data in Brief."

As with article references, the dataset will be cited at the relevant place within the text of the article and will appear in the reference list. The data citations will look the same as other citations but will also contain new elements, such as the repository where the dataset is stored. In most cases, there will be a direct link to the stored dataset, making it even easier for authors to find relevant datasets.

Read more on Elsevier Connect or join our Publishing Campus webinar "Data Citation: How can you as a researcher benefit from citing data?" on December 6 at 3-4pm CET.

About Elsevier  

Elsevier is a world-leading provider of information solutions that enhance the performance of science, health, and technology professionals, empowering them to make better decisions, deliver better care, and sometimes make groundbreaking discoveries that advance the boundaries of knowledge and human progress. Elsevier provides web-based, digital solutions - among them ScienceDirect, Scopus, Research Intelligence and ClinicalKey - and publishes over 2,500 journals, including The Lancet and Cell, and more than 35,000 book titles, including a number of iconic reference works. Elsevier is part of RELX Group, a world-leading provider of information and analytics for professional and business customers across industries. http://www.elsevier.com

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