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How to Cite

If you utilized our services in conducting your research, please acknowledge us and our sponsors. This enables us to show the value and impact of our work so our sponsors can see the results of their support. Detailed guidelines for geodetic (NSF GAGE) and seismological (NSF SAGE) support are given below.

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Attribution for Data and Support

Data Citation Guidance

The EarthScope Consortium data policy governs data archiving, accessibility, and attribution. EarthScope’s policies and procedures are consistent with ethical considerations and best practices of data use as described by Pritchard et al. (2012) and will facilitate data citation as envisioned by the NSF Geoscience Directorate. We are committed to Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable (FAIR) data principles. EarthScope is also a certified ICSU World Data Systems (WDS) Regular Member.

The NSF GAGE Facility archives datasets and derived data products that have been collected by many community investigators funded by a variety of sources. The data user bears sole responsibility for recognizing the role of the data provider through co-authorship, citation, sponsor acknowledgment, and/or other attribution, as appropriate and consistent with professional standards and sponsor requirements.

To facilitate data citation, we provide Digital Object Identifier (DOI) assignments for all suitably-archived, publishable datasets (including GPS/GNSS, TLS, and SAR data and products). A citation using a dataset’s DOI in a publication’s reference list provides appropriate attribution. We believe that the ability to cite datasets using DOIs will encourage ethical use of free and open data. In addition to fostering data citation, DOIs are useful for accessing specific datasets or versions of datasets, and for tracking provenance. If you are using a particular dataset that does not yet have a DOI, please contact us to see if DOI minting can be expedited. If needed, multiple DOIs can be aggregated into a single (new) DOI for ease of citation when many datasets are being referenced—contact us to arrange aggregated DOIs.

Community contributors of GPS/GNSS datasets in the archive and others can view the DOI information for published datasets through our GPS/GNSS Dataset DOI Search.

To acknowledge support:

This material is based on services provided by the NSF GAGE Facility, operated by EarthScope Consortium, with support from the National Science Foundation, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the U.S. Geological Survey under NSF Cooperative Agreement EAR-1724794.

To cite EarthScope Engagement:

Materials provided by EarthScope Consortium have been used in this study. The facilities of EarthScope Consortium are supported by the National Science Foundation’s Seismological Facility for the Advancement of Geoscience (SAGE) Award under Cooperative Agreement EAR-1724509 and Geodetic Facility for the Advancement of Geoscience (GAGE) Award under NSF Cooperative Agreement EAR-1724794.

Minimal Citation Format

A minimal citation for a dataset contains the following elements (all obtainable through our DOI search interface):

Author(s), Publication Year, Title, EarthScope Consortium, DOI.

Full Citation Format

The recommended full citation includes additional elements for the date you accessed the data and the date range of the subset of data you used, when applicable:

Author(s), Publication Year, Title, EarthScope Consortium, dataset type, DOI, date accessed, subset used.

To acknowledge support from October 2018 to December 30th 2022 from the UNAVCO operated GAGE Facility (including the Network of the Americas (NOTA), the Plate Boundary Observatory (PBO), CoCONet and TLALOCnet):

This material is based on services provided by the GAGE Facility, operated by UNAVCO, Inc., with support from the National Science Foundation, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the U.S. Geological Survey under NSF Cooperative Agreement EAR-1724794.

Minimal Citation Format

A minimal citation for a historic GAGE/UNAVCO dataset contains the following elements (all obtainable through our DOI search interface):

Author(s), Publication Year, Title, UNAVCO, DOI.

Full Citation Format

The recommended full citation for a historic GAGE/UNAVCO dataset includes additional elements for the date you accessed the data and the date range of the subset of data you used, when applicable:

Author(s), Publication Year, Title, UNAVCO, Boulder, CO, dataset type, DOI, date accessed, subset used.

Example – Citation of a historic GAGE/UNAVCO GNSS/GPS Campaign

Miller, M. Meghan, 2001, Baja California 1996, UNAVCO, Boulder, CO, GPS Campaign Data Set,
https://doi.org/10.7283/T5MW2F2D, accessed 1 Aug 2013.

Example – Citation of a historic GAGE/UNAVCO GNSS/GPS Permanent/Continuous Station

Bendick, Rebecca, 2012, Southwest Montana GPS Network, BSPC – Big Sheep Creek P.S.,
UNAVCO, Boulder, CO, GPS Continuous Station Data Set, https://doi.org/10.7283/T54M92GS,
accessed 25 Jun 2013, time-windowed subset 2011-09-09 through 2011-11-30.

To acknowledge support between 2012 and September 2018 from UNAVCO and the GAGE Facility including the Plate Boundary Observatory and EarthScope:

This material is based on services provided by the GAGE Facility, operated by UNAVCO, Inc., with support from the National Science Foundation and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration under NSF Cooperative Agreement EAR-11261833.

To acknowledge services between 2003 – 2012 from the Plate Boundary Observatory:

This material is based on services provided by the Plate Boundary Observatory operated by UNAVCO, Inc. for EarthScope and supported by the National Science Foundation No. EAR-0350028 and EAR-0732947.

To acknowledge services between 2010 – 2018 from the Continuously Operating Caribbean GPS Observational Network (COCONet):

This material is based on services provided by Continuously Operating Caribbean GPS Observational Network: Infrastructure for a Multi-hazard Tectonic and Weather Observatory (COCONet), supported by the National Science Foundation under EAR-1042906.

To acknowledge services between 2013 – 2018 from the Trans-boundary, Land and Atmosphere Long-term Observational and Collaborative Network (TLALOCnet):

This material is based on services provided by the Trans-boundary, Land and Atmosphere Long-term Observational and Collaborative Network (TLALOCnet), operated by UNAVCO, Inc., and supported by the National Science Foundation No. EAR-1338091.

To acknowledge UNAVCO’s Nepal Gorkha earthquake response, supported by GAGE:

This work would not have been possible without the data sets acquired under two awards: (1) NSF EAR 1345136 to J.P. Avouac and N. Lapusta, at the California Institute of Technology (Galetzka et al., 2015); and (2) a NASA-funded supplement to the GAGE Facility award, under a request framed by J. P. Avouac for UNAVCO engineering support, data recovery and data services. UNAVCO is supported to operate the GAGE Facility by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) under NSF Cooperative Agreement No. EAR-1261833. The geodetic array of Nepal’s Department of Mines and Geology was constructed with Caltech start-up funds provided to Jean-Phillipe Avouac and support from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation for the Caltech Tectonics Observatory.

To acknowledge data or data products between 2012 – 2018 from NASA Global GNSS Network (GGN) or UNAVCO support for the IGS (International GNSS Service):

The Global GNSS Network (GGN) is operated by UNAVCO, Inc. at the direction of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) with support from NASA under NSF Cooperative Agreement No. EAR-1261833.

To cite EarthScope Data Services:

The facilities of EarthScope Consortium were used for access to waveforms, related metadata, and/or derived products used in this study. These services are funded through the National Science Foundation’s Seismological Facility for the Advancement of Geoscience (SAGE) Award under Cooperative Agreement EAR-1724509.

To cite data obtained from EarthScope:

In 2014, the International Federation of Digital Seismic Networks (FDSN) recommended that all seismic networks with a FDSN network code have a DOI. To cite data from a network with a DOI, refer to the data as you would to a normal scientific manuscript in the main body of the manuscript, or in the Acknowledgements. Then include the reference in the standard list of references or, if the list is long, in a special section for data sources.

A tool for discovering the FDSN network references is provided here.

Example citation in an Acknowledgement:

All seismic data were downloaded through the EarthScope Consortium Wilber 3 system (https://ds.iris.edu/wilber3/) or EarthScope Consortium Web Services (https://service.iris.edu/), including the following seismic networks: (1) the AZ (ANZA; UC San Diego, 1982); (2) the TA (Transportable Array; IRIS, 2003); (3) the US (USNSN, Albuquerque, 1990); (4) the IU (GSN; Albuquerque, 1988).

Associated reference list:

  • Frank Vernon, U. C. S. D. (1982). ANZA Regional Network. International Federation of Digital Seismograph Networks. https://doi.org/10.7914/SN/AZ
  • IRIS Transportable Array. (2003). USArray Transportable Array. International Federation of Digital Seismograph Networks. https://doi.org/10.7914/SN/TA
  • Albuquerque Seismological Laboratory (ASL)/USGS. (1990). United States National Seismic Network. International Federation of Digital Seismograph Networks. https://doi.org/10.7914/SN/US
  • Albuquerque Seismological Laboratory (ASL)/USGS. (1988). Global Seismograph Network (GSN – IRIS/USGS). International Federation of Digital Seismograph Networks. https://doi.org/10.7914/SN/IU

To cite GSN (example):

Global Seismographic Network (GSN) is a cooperative scientific facility operated jointly by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the United States Geological Survey (USGS). The NSF component is part of the NSF SAGE Facility, operated by EarthScope Consortium under Cooperative Agreement EAR-1724509.

Additionally, please include the references for all networks where data were used as outlined above in the Data Services section. These include IU, II, IC, CU and the most up-to-date citation and DOIs for networks can be queried using the FDSN network reference tool.

To cite Portable Program (formerly PASSCAL):

In any publications or reports resulting from the use of the Portable Program instruments, please include the following statement in the acknowledgment section. You are also encouraged to acknowledge NSF and EarthScope in any contacts with the news media or in general articles.

The seismic instruments were provided by EarthScope Consortium through the EarthScope Primary Instrument Center at New Mexico Tech. Data collected will be available through EarthScope. These services are funded through the National Science Foundation’s Seismological Facility for the Advancement of Geoscience (SAGE) Award under Cooperative Agreement EAR-1724509.

To cite Polar Support Services:

Acknowledgment – In any publications or reports resulting from the using EarthScope’s Polar-specific seismic instruments or support, please include the following statement in the acknowledgment section. You are also encouraged to acknowledge NSF and EarthScope in any contacts with the news media or in general articles.

The seismic instruments were provided by EarthScope Consortium through the Portable Program Polar Support Services. Data collected will be available through EarthScope. These services are funded through the National Science Foundation’s Seismological Facility for the Advancement of Geoscience (SAGE) Award under Cooperative Support Agreement OPP-1851037.

To cite Transportable Array:

Data from the TA network were made freely available as part of the EarthScope USArray facility, operated by IRIS (now EarthScope Consortium) and supported by the National Science Foundation under Cooperative Agreements EAR-1261681.

To cite EarthScope Engagement:

Materials provided by EarthScope Consortium have been used in this study. The facilities of EarthScope Consortium are supported by the National Science Foundation’s Seismological Facility for the Advancement of Geoscience (SAGE) Award under Cooperative Agreement EAR-1724509 and Geodetic Facility for the Advancement of Geoscience (GAGE) Award under NSF Cooperative Agreement EAR-1724794.

To cite OBSIP (Ocean Bottom Seismograph Instrumentation Pool):

The Ocean Bottom Seismograph Instrument Pool – “OBSIP” was established in 1999 as a National Science Foundation (NSF) instrument facility that provided ocean bottom seismometers to support research and further our understanding of marine geology, seismology and geodynamics. OBSIP was funded by the NSF and composed of a Management Office (IRIS) and three Institutional Instrument Contributors – Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO), Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO), and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), each of whom contributed both instruments and technical support to the pool. WHOI operates the new Ocean Bottom Seismic Instrument Center (obsic.who.edu) to provide seafloor seismographs and technical support to the U.S. academic community beginning in August 1, 2018, and archives all data with EarthScope Consortium.

Data used in this research were provided by instruments from the Ocean Bottom Seismograph Instrument Pool, which was funded by the National Science Foundation. OBSIP data are archived at the EarthScope Consortium facilities, which is funded by the National Science Foundation’s Seismological Facility for the Advancement of Geoscience (SAGE) Award under Cooperative Agreement EAR-1724509.

Submit a Citation

If you would like us to acknowledge a publication in which EarthScope Consortium is cited, you can do so using this form.