# How many peer-reviewed publications use iNaturalist data? **URL:** \ **Category:** General\ **Created:** [November 16, 2022, 3:21pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/how-many-peer-reviewed-publications-use-inaturalist-data/37309 "2022-11-16T15:21:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![lycophidion](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/lycophidion/32/31504_2.png) [@lycophidion](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/lycophidion)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2022, 3:21pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/how-many-peer-reviewed-publications-use-inaturalist-data/37309/1 "2022-11-16T15:21:29Z")
How many peer-reviewed publications to date use iNaturalist data? Is there a page with cumulative statistics on publications, peer reviewed and otherwise? Thank you! ---
**Author:** ![ephofmann](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/ephofmann/32/26845_2.png) [@ephofmann](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/ephofmann)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2022, 3:33pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/how-many-peer-reviewed-publications-use-inaturalist-data/37309/2 "2022-11-16T15:33:19Z")
There are a few wiki pages that keep track of papers that use iNaturalist data/observations specifically (not including all the many papers that use GBIF data, which iNat contributes to). [The most recent one is here.](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/published-papers-that-use-inaturalist-data-wiki-3-2022-and-2023/34753/) It contains links to the previous two as well. ---
**Author:** ![trinaroberts](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/trinaroberts/32/12172_2.png) [@trinaroberts](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/trinaroberts)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2022, 10:00pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/how-many-peer-reviewed-publications-use-inaturalist-data/37309/3 "2022-11-16T22:00:40Z")
GBIF also tracks citations. If you want to take a look at those for iNat obs in GBIF… For a summary, visit the Activity tab for the iNaturalist Research-Grade Observations dataset in GBIF: [https://www.gbif.org/dataset/50c9509d-22c7-4a22-a47d-8c48425ef4a7/activity](https://www.gbif.org/dataset/50c9509d-22c7-4a22-a47d-8c48425ef4a7/activity) And for an actual list, [https://www.gbif.org/resource/search?contentType=literature&gbifDatasetKey=50c9509d-22c7-4a22-a47d-8c48425ef4a7](https://www.gbif.org/resource/search?contentType=literature&gbifDatasetKey=50c9509d-22c7-4a22-a47d-8c48425ef4a7) (Edited to add): You can also access literature records via the GBIF API – see [https://www.gbif.org/developer/literature](https://www.gbif.org/developer/literature) ---
**Author:** ![kgrebennikov](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/kgrebennikov/32/13534_2.png) [@kgrebennikov](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/kgrebennikov)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2022, 11:05am UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/how-many-peer-reviewed-publications-use-inaturalist-data/37309/4 "2022-11-17T11:05:26Z")
It’s a complicated question. To answer it accurately would require a single database of all scientific publications in the world. But so far, our world is not that small. Each of the citation indices covers only a part of the published works. In addition to global ones, there are many national systems for recording and indexing publications. Moreover, not all authors who use the data correctly cite them. Which, of course, is unfortunate. It is important to cite not only the name of the source, but also its identifier. For example: [GBIF.org](http://GBIF.org) (13 September 2022) GBIF Occurrence Download [https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.fqur4p](https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.fqur4p) This link doesn’t directly reference iNatutalist, but if click DOI, among the linked datasets is [doi.org/10.15468/ab3s5x](http://doi.org/10.15468/ab3s5x) - iNaturalist Research-grade Observations. But someone may not use a dataset in GBIF in their publications, but data obtained directly from iNatutalist, or single observations. Since in this case, there is no [identifier](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/citation-question-how-to-cite-data-acquired-from-the-inatrualist-api/22606) or clear [citation rules](https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/help#cite), it is difficult to calculate the number of such uses. Even the “actual” list of publications citing the iNatutalist dataset in GBIF is the result of [semi-automated processin](https://www.gbif.org/literature-tracking)g of only 6 publication indices. So, the correct answer to your question I would formulate as follows: “there are currently at least [2,202 peer-reviewed publications](https://www.gbif.org/resource/search?contentType=literature&gbifDatasetKey=50c9509d-22c7-4a22-a47d-8c48425ef4a7&peerReview=true), including at least [2,157 journal articles](https://www.gbif.org/resource/search?contentType=literature&literatureType=journal&gbifDatasetKey=50c9509d-22c7-4a22-a47d-8c48425ef4a7&peerReview=true), using the iNatutalist Research-grade data.” But these numbers are not exact. ---
**Author:** ![lycophidion](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/lycophidion/32/31504_2.png) [@lycophidion](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/lycophidion)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2022, 3:05pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/how-many-peer-reviewed-publications-use-inaturalist-data/37309/5 "2022-11-30T15:05:52Z")
Thanks! I saw this page, but it doesn’t seem to provide a concise count. ---
**Author:** ![lycophidion](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/lycophidion/32/31504_2.png) [@lycophidion](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/lycophidion)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2022, 3:08pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/how-many-peer-reviewed-publications-use-inaturalist-data/37309/6 "2022-11-30T15:08:00Z")
Thanks! This gives just what I needed, the number of citations. ---
**Author:** ![lycophidion](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/lycophidion/32/31504_2.png) [@lycophidion](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/lycophidion)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2022, 3:10pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/how-many-peer-reviewed-publications-use-inaturalist-data/37309/7 "2022-11-30T15:10:38Z")
Thanks! Even given the caveats, that’s the information I needed! ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/uploads/inaturalist/original/2X/7/7831452cf7f0d653ff1ffd34176334b7ef1b6a17.png) [@system](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/system)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2023, 3:11pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/how-many-peer-reviewed-publications-use-inaturalist-data/37309/8 "2023-01-29T15:11:24Z")
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