How is a USGS scientific software information product cited? [226]

By Office of Science Quality and Integrity

As defined in SM 502.11, USGS scientific software information products may be cited; however, the corresponding software project may not be cited or referred to within another information product. For example, a USGS information product using data must cite the scientific software information product rather than the corresponding software project. Below is a citation template that should be followed when citing USGS scientific software information products. Values in ALL_CAPITALS should be replaced with meaningful values for the software product being cited. Other values are text literals that should appear exactly as they are in the template:

PI_LAST_NAME, PI_INITIAL., PUBLICATION_YEAR, SOFTWARE_TITLE version SEMANTIC_VERSION_NUMBER U.S. Geological Survey software release, DOI_URL

In the template above, the following fields have the following meaning:

PI_LAST_NAME: The surname of the principal investigator for the software product.
PI_INITIAL: The initial(s) of the first- and possibly middle- name(s) of the principal investigator for the software product.
PUBLICATION_YEAR: The four-digit year when the software product was published.
SOFTWARE_TITLE: The canonical title of the software product. This value should be in title case.
SEMANTIC_VERSION_NUMBER: The semantic version number of the software product. Refer to [FAQ 135](FAQ_135).
DOI_URL: The full URL for the DOI for the software product. Refer to [FAQ 139] (FAQ_139) and the USGS DOI page.

An example citation follows:

Doe, J., 2024, Super Software Sample Project version 1.0.0 U.S. Geological Survey software release, https://doi.org/10.5066/00000000