We are asking sites to provide a BibTex file of publications and products that could not have been produced without LTER support. Sites maintain records of their publications in different systems (Zotero, DEIMS, EndNote, custom databases), but everyone should be able to export a BibTex file. The Network Office will combine all the files from sites and handle de-duplication, aligning with DOI’s, and tagging, so that each publication is listed only once, but all associated sites are tagged.
Please include
- Journal articles, books, book chapters, maps, software, peer-reviewed conference papers (not posters or presentations), published reports, patents, Master’s, and PhD theses.
Do not include
- Work that was simply inspired by proximity to LTER research. We are concerned that many of our lists include papers that are very tenuously related to LTER projects and this devalues the entire list. So please do not include papers that are not genuinely LTER-related. If the connection is genuine, but unlikely to be obvious to a casual observer, please include a note explaining the connection, in the “note” field.
- Magazine and newspaper articles about LTER research. We have other methods for highlighting and sharing this information.
- Research that preceded the funding of the LTER site. This is very appropriate for you to maintain as reference material on your site websites, but should not be included as a product of the LTER program.
- Personal communications. Again — great for your site record, but not needed for the Network record.
- Abstracts for conference presentations or posters. These are legitimate products, but in the context of a 40-year program, they are relatively ephemeral, and make it look like we are inflating our numbers.
- Unpublished work – this only creates more duplicates that need to be resolved.
File naming convention
Please name your file according to the following convention:
XXX-pubs-YYYY-MM where XXX=site acronym; YYYY=Year; and MM=numeric month in which the file was exported.
Identifying LTER Site
Please use the entry-types and fields that follow when exporting your BibTex file. In addition to the required fields listed below under each entry type, please ensure that your export includes a keyword identifying your LTER site and one or both of two fairly standard fields for linking to the product:
- LTER site keyword format (or tag in Zotero): LTER-XXX, where XXX=your three-letter site acronym
- DOI (if available) or
- URL (if available)
Entry types and required fields
NSF uses a fairly narrow set of entry types for annual report and public access repository reporting. In general, it makes sense to align the LTER publication database with those types, but we are allowing a few additional types to accommodate technical reports, gray literature, and a miscellaneous type to accommodate awkward and unanticipated modes of publication, such as maps and software packages.The required field for each entry type are the same as NSF’s and are listed below the entry type.
- article – An article from a journal or magazine.
- Required fields: author, title, journal, year
- Optional fields: volume, number, pages, month, note
- book – A book with an explicit publisher
- Required fields: author or editor, title, publisher, year
- Optional fields: volume or number, series, address, edition, month, note
- booklet– A work that is printed and bound, but without a named publisher or sponsoring institution.
- Required field: title
- Optional fields: author, howpublished, address, month, year, note
- inbook – A part of a book, which may be a chapter (or section or whatever) and/or a range of pages.
- Required fields: author or editor, title, chapter and/or pages, publisher, year
- Optional fields: volume or number, series, type, address, edition, month, note
- incollection – A part of a book having its own title
- Required fields: author, title, booktitle, publisher, year
- Optional fields: editor, volume or number, series, type, chapter, pages, address, edition, month, note
- mastersthesis or phdthesis – master’s or doctoral thesis
- Required fields: author, title, school, year, type (masters, doctoral)
- Optional fields: address, month, note
- proceedings – The proceedings of a conference
- Required fields: title, year
- Optional fields: editor, volume or number, series, address, month, organization, publisher, note
- inproceedings – An article in a conference proceedings
- Required fields: author, title, booktitle, year
- Optional fields: editor, volume or number, series, pages, address, month, organization, publisher, note
Additional standard BibTex entry types that are acceptable for the LTER Network bibliography
- techreport – A report published by a school or other institution, usually numbered within a series (also appropriate for government reports and gray literature)
- Required fields: author, title, institution/organization, year
- Optional fields: type, number, address, month, note
- manual – Technical documentation
- Required field: title
- Optional fields: author, organization, address, edition, month, year, note
- misc – Use this type when nothing else fits. (Appropriate for maps, patents, software, etc. Please strive to include as much detail as possible, especially year and howpublished)
- Required fields: none.
- Optional fields: author, title, howpublished, month, year, note.
