SimCenter provides citations to promote knowledge sharing

May 23, 2024

SimCenter provides citations
to promote knowledge sharing
(Image: Duke Innovation Co-Lab, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

Scholarly citations play a crucial role in the dissemination of knowledge, the advancement of research, and the evaluation of scholarly impact and productivity. The SimCenter introduces an innovative mechanism to streamline your citation management. The latest software releases of quoFEM, EE-UQ, WE-UQ, Hydro-UQ, PBE Application, and the R2D Tool feature a new auto citation generator which accelerates your publication preparations by providing accurate and appropriate citations for the computational methods and models you utilize through our software. As you proceed through the workflow steps and select options in the application, relevant citations are automatically cataloged and provided to you for your publication references.

Our motivation is to promote your work through:

1. Effortlessly Collecting Citations: Our auto citation generator simplifies the process by automatically generating citations based on the workflow options you select within our software. Citation annotations further provide pertinent information that offers context and can enrich your literature review.
    
2. Crediting Essential Work: We recognize the importance of acknowledging the contributions of others to your research. By citing the works upon which your simulations rely, you uphold academic integrity and honor the contributions of fellow researchers.
    
3. Encouraging Community Contributions: By facilitating proper citation practices, this feature encourages researchers to publish their models, methods, and findings with confidence that they will receive proper credit. This fosters a culture of knowledge sharing and collaboration, ultimately advancing natural hazards research.

Currently, citation output is accessible in a pop-up window for easy copying and pasting; the citations are also saved as a JSON file in the LocalWorkDir directory of the application for retention and archival purposes. Each citation includes a description of its origin within the workflow to help users understand its source.

We’re interested in your ideas on how to best interact with this new feature! Participate in this survey before July 31, 2024, to share your thoughts on how you’d like to obtain the citation output. Then look for future releases of the auto citation generator that implements feedback.

As a reminder, citations for the SimCenter should cite both the marker paper and the software tool used. These citations are located on each tool webpage.

1. The SimCenter marker paper:
   
   Deierlein, G.G., McKenna, F., Zsarnóczay, A., Kijewski-Correa, T., Kareem, A., Elhaddad, W., Lowes, L., Schoettler, M.J., Govindjee, S. (2020). A Cloud-Enabled Application Framework for Simulating Regional-Scale Impacts of Natural Hazards on the Built Environment. Frontiers in Built Environment. 6:558706. doi: 10.3389/fbuil.2020.558706.
    
2. The SimCenter software tool used, for example “quoFEM”.
   
   Frank McKenna, Sang-ri Yi, Aakash Bangalore Satish, Adam Zsarnoczay, Kuanshi Zhong, Michael Gardner, & Wael Elhaddad. (2023). NHERI-SimCenter/quoFEM: Version 3.5.0 (v3.5.0). Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10443180.

For acknowledgement of assistance or user support received from the SimCenter, the following sample wording is appropriate as warranted:

The authors appreciate the assistance from (developer name) at the NHERI SimCenter that enabled (a specific portion of) this work. The NHERI SimCenter is funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation. Therefore, this material is based upon work supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation under Grant No. 2131111. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. National Science Foundation.