Measuring the Multidisciplinary Impact of Scientific Data Disseminated by the NASA SEDAC

Metrics about the impact of scientific data indicate the potential value of the data and their level of use in both science and applications. Such metrics can inform data producers, data centers, and sponsors in assessing priorities. However, developing consistent and objective metrics is challenging due to the multitude of ways in which data are used. Tracking citations in the formal scientific literature represents one approach to creating useful metrics. We analyze both direct and secondary citations of data distributed by the NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC) to gain insight into the multidisciplinary use of SEDAC data during a recent five-year period.