The high-quality greenhouse gas data from ICOS can be accessed by anyone, free of charge, and from anywhere in the world. In return, the ICOS requires all its data users to cite and acknowledge the use of its data.
Data citation, like the citation of other evidence and sources, is good research practice and supports data reuse. ICOS follows the Force 11 Joint Declaration of Citation Principles, which recognise data as important, citable products of research, and that data citations should be both understandable by humans and machine-readable (i.e. can be read and processed by a computer). Furthermore, data citation is required in the ICOS data licence.
Citing and acknowledging ICOS data is also a way to show appreciation to the people in the network, such as researchers, technicians and data managers, who make the data accessible and usable for all.
What is ICOS data?
“ICOS data” are quantitative or qualitative attributes of variables or sets of variables that have been gathered by using ICOS RI recommended sensors at validated ICOS stations in an ICOS ERIC member or observer country. ICOS stations are operated at the national level and together they form an ICOS National Network in each ICOS member country. ICOS data are processed in ICOS Thematic Centres.
“ICOS synthesis data products” are products that can be generated from ICOS data. ICOS data and products are usually downloaded through the ICOS data portal, however regardless of where the data is downloaded, ICOS data must always be appropriately cited and acknowledged. .
More information can be found in the ICOS RI Data Policy.
The referencing style for ICOS data
ICOS data must be cited in three places of your research paper: data citations and references. Any contribution from ICOS RI (e.g. data, guidance, experience) must be acknowledged in acknowledgements.
ICOS has defined a referencing style for data citations that is recommended for all users. The referencing style below ensures the citations are understandable by humans and machines. Please make use of the examples below when formatting your data citations and acknowledgements.
In the data citations section
Use the following text and complete with the information from the data product you used
[Name of the data category used] were downloaded from the ICOS Carbon portal,
DOI: [DOI number] ([Name of the data providers] et al., [Year])
In References
When using one dataset, use the citation from the landing page of the dataset you downloaded, either as plain text or in the BibTex format, e.g.
Couret, C., Schmidt, M. (2023). ICOS ATC NRT CO2 growing time series, Zugspitze (3.0 m),
2022-03-01–2023-03-22, ICOS RI, https://hdl.handle.net/11676/UVP70zW_5E22llM-_4qeS_b_
When using several datasets, use the DOI number of the entire data release and list stations that contributed to the release in the acknowledgements section.
In Acknowledgements
Use the following text and complete with the information from the data product you used
The author(s) would like to thank the ICOS [PIs/ TC/ CP] for providing the [data/facilities] on [name of the data/ elaborated products/ service provided]. We thank [PI(s) name(s)] of the ICOS [CP / TC/ name of the station(s) and their location] for [say what you thank these people for].
Note: the name ICOS should always be spelled in capital letters.
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