Citation of Data That Were Accessed

Owned by Doug Boyer
Last updated: Feb 08, 2022
2 min read

Information available via downloaded data

When MorphoSource data were accessed via download from MorphoSource, they should be cited according to the download re-use agreement that came packaged with that file and as displayed in the "cite as" field of the Ownership and Permissions section of the media show page.


Information available with out downloading data

If data were not downloaded, but only visualized or measured using browser tools (or transcribed from metadata displayed on MorphoSource pages), stipulations of the permissive reuse agreement should be followed: Common Requirements of All Use Agreements.  Furthermore, for information acquired from MorphoSource without downloading, users should review the general Terms of Use to understand their rights and obligations.  In particular they should see provision 6.

Provision 6 of MorphoSource Terms of Use:

"6. Use of MorphoSource Site for Access to Data and Use of Content: Unless otherwise specified in the Content ownership and permissions displayed for that Content, MorphoSource File Download Agreements, or other agreements attached by Contributors to Content, the Content has been made accessible to the general public in furtherance of Duke’s educational and research mission. All Content shall be used in accordance with ownership and permissions displayed for that Content and as described in the MorphoSource File Use Agreements and/or any additional agreements associated with that Content. Furthermore, data and renderings displayed on the site (i.e., Content that can be accessed without agreeing to a MorphoSource File Use Agreement) shall only be used for non-commercial, research, educational, and related academic and expressive purposes. Examples of acceptable uses include personal study, distribution to students, research, scholarship, and expression (including computational research such as data and text mining, citation extraction, or cross-referencing), and expressly do not include any sale of Content, placing Content behind a paywall, or selling advertising on any page on which the Content is displayed. In any published work that uses or references MorphoSource Content, you shall fully cite MorphoSource and any stakeholders and Content owners specified in the MorphoSource File Use Agreements as the sources of the Content. Users will not make any translation, adaptation, or other derivative work of an item of Content except as authorized under U.S. copyright law, MorphoSource File Use Agreements, other laws, and any additional agreements associated with that Content."


Citation for transparency of publications relying on data

Researchers and educators should always include the following three items which in fact is also required by re-use agreements of all data on MorphoSource (Common Requirements of All Use Agreements).

  1. the museum organization housing the physical specimen depicted by the data you accessed
  2. the catalog number associated with the physical specimen depicted by the data you accessed
  3. the resolved identifier of the dataset you accessed - preferrably a DOI.  If no DOI has been minted you can contact MorphoSource (morphosource@duke.edu) to request that one be minted even if you are not the contributor of the dataset. Please be sure to provide the media ID, URL, and/or ARK of the media in your request.