Recommendation 1 - All research should follow good citation practice
Ethics committees emphasise that recognising the work of others is a research ethical value and a prerequisite for the scientific community to work collegially, responsibly and in a self-correcting manner. Research data should be used ethically by mentioning the source. Therefore, proper citation is necessary whenever conclusions, methods, ideas, and actual research material drawn from data are quoted or used or mentioned in any research output, including a dataset. Negligence can be considered a violation of research ethics and plagiarism or fraud (National Committee for Research Ethics in the Social Sciences and the Humanities, 2021).
All citations must be made in a manner that complies with any licences or terms of use set by the data authors or a body acting on their behalf, such as a repository. The same should apply to citing copyrighted, openly licensed or public domain material.
Recommendation 2 – Even restricted data should be citable
Ethics committees should in their guidance and decisions emphasise the importance of giving proper credit to the data sources used in research, especially if these data were collected from human participants. Citing data, even in the case when actual data cannot be made available due to ethical issues or access is in other ways restricted due to privacy concerns, should be underlined.
Recommendation 3 - Address data citation in data management plans
Ethics committees should encourage researchers to address data citation practices in their data management plans submitted for ethical review. Proper citation is an essential aspect of research integrity and transparency. Addressing this in DMPs allows researchers to demonstrate their commitment to best data citation practices.
In addition, to raise awareness, ethics review forms should include an informative section about data sharing, data citation, and best practices.