A Model for Data Citation in Astronomical Research using Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs)

TL;DR

This paper advocates for standardizing data citation in astronomy using DOIs, demonstrating a pilot project that increased DOI adoption among authors to improve data attribution and interoperability.

Contribution

It introduces a model for integrating DOIs into astronomical data citation and reports on a successful pilot implementation with high author adoption.

Findings

Over 75% of authors used the DOI service during submission

Using DOIs enhances data attribution and citation consistency

The pilot demonstrates feasibility and benefits of DOI integration in astronomy

Abstract

Standardizing and incentivizing the use of digital object identifiers (DOIs) to aggregate and identify both data analyzed and data generated by a research project will advance the field of astronomy to match best practices in other research fields like geosciences and medicine. Increase in the use of DOIs will prepare the discipline for changing expectations among funding agencies and publishers, who increasingly expect accurate and thorough data citation to accompany scientific outputs. The use of DOIs ensures a robust, sustainable, and interoperable approach to data citation in which due credit is given to researchers and institutions who produce and maintain the primary data. We describe in this work the advantages of DOIs for data citation and best practices for integrating a DOI service in an astronomical archive. We report on a pilot project carried out in collaboration with AAS Journals. During the course of the 1.5 year pilot, over 75% of submitting authors opted to use the integrated DOI service to clearly identify data analyzed during their research project when prompted at the time of paper submission.