This screencast provides an introduction to Datacite, a not-for-profit organization formed in London in 2009, whose goals include establishing easier access to research data on the internet, increasing acceptance of research data as legitimate, citable contributions to the scholarly record and supporting data archiving that will permit results to be verified and re-purposed for future study.
This screencast takes viewers on a tour of the Datacite website and explores the purpose of Datacite as laid out by its founding members. It describes the advantages to researchers of citing data, such as enabling easy reuse and verification of data, which promotes scholarship and unfettered access to information. It also discusses things like how to cite data, which is similar to how one would cite a book or article. Further areas of discussion include participating member institutions, how to become a member of Datacite, and other opportunities for involvement such as conference and networking opportunities.
In addition to these areas, the various services offered by Datacite are outlined such as the Datacite Metadata Store and DOI Citation Formatter. Datacite also provides a variety of open access resources such as the DataCite Metadata Schema, which are explored in more depth herein.
It is my hope that this screencast will increase awareness about Datacite and encourage researchers, scholars and students to start or continue citing and sharing their data.
Caitlin Bronner