Tracing Data Footprints: Formal and Informal Data Citations in the Scientific Literature

Ornella Irrera, Andrea Mannocci, Paolo Manghi, Gianmaria Silvello

Abstract: Data citation has become a prevalent practice within the scientific community, serving the purpose of facilitating data discovery, reproducibility, and credit attribution. Consequently, data has gained significant importance in the scholarly process. Despite its growing prominence, data citation is still at an early stage, with considerable variations in practices observed across scientific domains. Such diversity hampers the ability to consistently analyze, detect, and quantify data citations.