Increasing the equitability of data citation in paleontology: capacity building for the big data future

作者：Jansen A. Smith, Nussaïbah Begum Raja, Thomas Clements, Danijela Dimitrijević, Elizabeth M. Dowding, Emma M. Dunne, Bryan Michael Gee, Pedro L. Godoy, Elizabeth M. Lombardi, Laura P. A. Mulvey, Paulina Nätscher, Carl J. Reddin, Bryan Shirley, Rachel C. M. Warnock, Ádám T. Kocsis · 发表于：Paleobiology · 年份：2023 · DOI：10.1017/pab.2023.33 · 被引用次数：16 · 研究领域：Research Data Management Practices、Scientific Computing and Data Management、scientometrics and bibliometrics research

Abstract Data compilations expand the scope of research; however, data citation practice lags behind advances in data use. It remains uncommon for data users to credit data producers in professionally meaningful ways. In paleontology, databases like the Paleobiology Database (PBDB) enable assessment of patterns and processes spanning millions of years, up to global scale. The status quo for data citation creates an imbalance wherein publications drawing data from the PBDB receive significantly more citations (median: 4.3 ± 3.5 citations/year) than the publications producing the data (1.4 ± 1.3 citations/year). By accounting for data reuse where citations were neglected, the projected citation rate for data-provisioning publications approached parity (4.2 ± 2.2 citations/year) and the impact factor of paleontological journals ( n = 55) increased by an average of 13.4% (maximum increase = 57.8%) in 2019. Without rebalancing the distribution of scientific credit, emerging “big data” research in paleontology—and science in general—is at risk of undercutting itself through a systematic devaluation of the work that is foundational to the discipline.