This is a draft document; recommendations have not been finalized.

Best Practice - Citation of Catalog Records

Citations are intended to link literature with the material on which it is based. Specifics will vary for each situation, and the following is generalized.

Worst Practices

Do not cite vague datasets or non-resolvable identifiers. Local identifiers, “DWC Triples,” a collection, or “some rats from Alaska” will all about equally useless to some future researcher hoping to replicate (or just understand) the work.

Data Archives

No citation format is an adequate replacement for simply archiving the data examined. This is equally important in a deeply normalized system like Arctos, where there are a near-infinite number of ways of packaging the data. Services such as Dryad exist for this purpose. If only one citation is given, an archive which contains record GUIDs should be the choice.

Record Identifiers

In addition to a data archive, Arctos record GUIDs (example: https://arctos.database.museum/guid/UAM:Ento:17972) should be listed when possible. An explicit list minimizes any chance of “drift.”

Packages of Record Identifiers

Projects and Archives provide short identifiers for groups of records, and may be a suitable citation (in addition to a data archive) when a list is not possible. Note that this approach increases the chance of drift; future actions may result in a packages which does not directly correspond with the material that was actually examined.

After Publication

Citations should be added to each involved Arctos record, serving as a reciprocal and redundant to the publication --> record relationship established by good citations.

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