Data citation

Emerging systems that enable the citation of digital data objects offer considerable potential to help researchers and funders to systematically track the use and impact of research data that is made available for re-use.

On behalf of the Public Health Research Data Forum, the Wellcome Trust commissioned the Digital Curation Centre (DCC) to undertake research to examine the current status of data citation mechanisms, and the opportunities and challenges for their potential application in the field of public health and epidemiology.

The DCC’s report presents an authoritative overview of the current landscape in the area, compiled through desk research, interviews with global experts, and a focus group with leading UK public health researchers.It identifies a number of key challenges that would need to be addressed in applying data citation systems in the public health research field, and makes recommendations for how the Forum could work with others to address these.

The report will be used by Forum members to raise awareness and stimulate further discussion in the public health research community on data citation, and the role these emerging tools could play in supporting data sharing in the field.

See: Enabling the citation of datasets generated through public health research