How to cite deleted datasets?

[earthengine_urs]

Hi,

We have some datasets in the Earth Engine catalog that are too old and are by now deleted from DAACs - eg, MODIS Ocean Color (https://developers.google.com/earth-engine/datasets/catalog/NASA_OCEANDATA_MODIS-Aqua_L3SMI#dois). Their DOI links like https://doi.org/10.5067/AQUA/MODIS/L3M/CHL/2018 no longer point at anything.

What citations should we use for such datasets? Old broken DOI links are technically correct but not really helpful, but links pointing at the newer versions of these datasets will no longer correspond to the data.

Thanks,
Simon

[OB.DAAC - amscott]

Hello,

Thank you for your message! I will take a look at the DOI URLs registered with doi.org to make sure they are updated properly.

The citation recommendation for datasets can be found here:
https://oceancolor.gsfc.nasa.gov/resources/how-to-cite/

For that dataset:
10.5067/AQUA/MODIS/L3M/CHL/2018
Suggested Citation for Aqua/MODIS data:
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Ocean Ecology Laboratory, Ocean Biology Processing Group.
Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Aqua {Dataset Name} Data; NASA OB.DAAC, Greenbelt, MD, USA. doi: {DOI}.
Accessed on 3/13/2024

[OB ODPS - towens]

Datasets that are no longer available are referred to as nonrecoverable sources.
Unless you will make your copy of the data available for download, I don't think it should be listed as a reference other than in the text.
You can Google "citing nonrecoverable sources" for guidance from the various style guides.
e.g.
https://apastyle.apa.org/blog/nonrecoverable-sources

[earthengine_urs]

Thank you, this advice sounds reasonable.