3  Cite This Data

This is the Data Sources & Attribution page — the one answer to “how do I cite CalCOFI data?”. Every CalCOFI product points here rather than restating it: the release itself has a citation, and every dataset inside it carries its own — checked against the source’s own authority, never invented (the attribution contract lives in CalCOFI/workflows).

ImportantTwo things to cite, always

If your work touches the CalCOFI Integrated Database, cite both: the release (the database as a whole — the assembly, the schema, the QA/QC) and every individual dataset your analysis actually used (the people who collected and curated the data). Citing only the release erases the contributing datasets; citing only a dataset erases the integration work that made it queryable alongside fifteen others.

3.1 Citing the database release

CalCOFI (2026). CalCOFI Integrated Database, release v2026.09.06 [Data set]. Scripps Institution of Oceanography, NOAA Fisheries, and California Department of Fish and Wildlife. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22514953

Every release also has a DOI of its own, minted on Zenodo when the release is tagged, and one concept DOI that always resolves to the newest release. Cite the version DOI in a paper — it names exactly the bytes you used — and the concept DOI where a living pointer is wanted. Both are in catalog.json (doi, concept_doi) and in the release notes’ How to cite:

3.2 Citing an individual dataset

Every dataset in the release carries its own citation_main, a registered license, and — where the source gives one — a doi, an acknowledgement and a contact. The columns are dataset.doi, dataset.license_url, dataset.acknowledgement, dataset.contact and dataset.source_accessed (measured at release, never typed; see the database). They have shipped since v2026.09.04. Table 3.1 is the dataset table of the promoted release, v2026.09.06.

Table 3.1: Every dataset of v2026.09.06 with the citation, licence, DOI and contact a use should carry.
dataset citation license DOI contact
calcofi_bottle CalCOFI. (2023). CalCOFI Bottle Database 194903-202105. CalCOFI.org.


calcofi_ctd-cast CalCOFI. (2023). CalCOFI CTD Cast Files. CalCOFI.org.


calcofi_dic Keeling, C.D.; Lueker, T.J.; Emanuele, G.; Dickson, A.G.; Martz, T.R.; Wolfe, W.H.; Mau, A. (2025). Discrete profile dissolved inorganic carbon, total alkalinity, water temperature and salinity measurements for CalCOFI (NCEI Accession 0301029). NOAA NCEI. https://doi.org/10.25921/3w9f-jd72 CC-BY-4.0 doi
calcofi_mets CalCOFI. Underway (METS) TSG/Meteorology Data. CalCOFI.org.


calcofi_phyllosoma CalCOFI - Scripps Institution of Oceanography and T. Koslow. 2017. Data pertaining to lobster phyllosoma, Panulirus interruptus, collection methods, locations, identification and staging (1951-2008, months of July and August) ver 4. Environmental Data Initiative. https://doi.org/10.6073/pasta/9e38121ebb26f1b59b7b39b2eff844fa custom doi
calcofi_phytoplankton CalCOFI - Scripps Institution of Oceanography, California Current Ecosystem LTER, and E. Venrick. 2023. Temporal and spatial changes of the abundance and species composition of phytoplankton in the California Current from samples collected aboard CalCOFI cruises from summer 1996 through 2022. ver 4. Environmental Data Initiative. https://doi.org/10.6073/pasta/60edabfbfd85c623fce05822befaa071 CC0-1.0 doi
cce-lter_euphausiids Ohman, M.D. 2022. California Current Ecosystem Euphausiid data, Brinton and Townsend Euphausiid Database (BTEDB) ver 1. Environmental Data Initiative. https://doi.org/10.6073/pasta/4a92a0044bcd1523a4f994ece874a57d custom doi
cce-lter_picoplankton-bacteria Landry, M. (2004-2023). Picoplankton and Bacteria Abundance (CalCOFI Cruise). CCE LTER.


cce-lter_zoodb
custom

cce-lter_zooscan
custom

cdfw_dungeness-crab Rogers-Bennett, L.; Jones, E.; Klemmedson, A. (2026). CDFW Dungeness Crab Megalopae from archived CalCOFI plankton samples (1949-2014). California Department of Fish and Wildlife, published through CalCOFI / Scripps Institution of Oceanography. CC-BY-4.0

farallon_bird-mammal
custom

sio_mesopelagic-fish Koslow, J. Anthony (2016). CalCOFI Trawl Data. In California Cooperative Oceanic Fisheries Investigations (CalCOFI): Acoustic and Trawl Data. UC San Diego Library Digital Collections. https://doi.org/10.6075/J0BZ64DH CC-BY-4.0 doi
sio_pic-zooplankton



swfsc_cufes
custom

swfsc_ichthyo NOAA Fisheries SWFSC. CalCOFI Ichthyoplankton Database.


3.3 Citing what you downloaded

Every figure, CSV or Parquet subset you export from a CalCOFI product should carry citations for only the datasets it actually used, plus the release. cc_cite() accepts a dataset_key vector or a query result data frame — it resolves exactly the datasets present, in first-occurrence order, and errors naming any dataset_key it does not recognize rather than silently dropping one.

library(calcofi4r)                # remotes::install_github("calcofi/calcofi4r")
con <- cc_get_db()                # the promoted release, over https

cc_cite(con = con)                # every dataset in the release, release citation first
cc_cite("calcofi_dic", con = con) # just the datasets a query touched

# from a query result directly (must carry a dataset_key column)
dplyr::tbl(con, "obs") |>
  dplyr::filter(dataset_key == "calcofi_dic") |>
  head(5) |>
  dplyr::collect() |>
  cc_cite(con = con)

# a .bib file for a paper's reference manager
cc_cite(format = "bibtex", con = con) |> cat()
# pip install "calcofi4py @ git+https://github.com/CalCOFI/calcofi4py"
import calcofi4py as cc

con = cc.cc_get_db()

cc.cc_cite()                     # every dataset, release citation first
cc.cc_cite("calcofi_dic")        # just one dataset
cc.cc_cite(format="bibtex")      # a .bib file

The Explorer does the same from its Cite this data button — the release citation plus one per dataset in the view, as text or BibTeX — and every CSV it exports carries a dataset_key column for exactly this reason.

3.4 Reaching a data provider

Each dataset’s contact (a provider-chosen URL or mailto: link) is in the table above. To share a derived product, ask a question about the underlying data, or propose a correction, use that contact — or open an issue against CalCOFI/workflows if you are unsure who owns a dataset. Every dataset’s provenance and open questions are also tracked in that repo’s metadata/{provider}/{dataset}/questions.csv.

3.5 See also

  • The database — table/column reference, including the dataset table’s full column list.
  • Data Access — how to query the release from R, Python or your browser.
  • Portals — where the same data is discoverable outside calcofi.io (EDI, NCEI, OBIS, ERDDAP).