S3: Credits and references

In the VO, it is important that the user can recover easily the origin of the data and the processes and tools used to transform and analyze the original data.

This is particularly important in the case of theoretical models, both for:

• scientific reasons: the user must be aware of the technical details of the model that he is using for his work (being able, for instance, to access a scientific paper with those details).
• adequately reference or acknowledge the scientific work and technical tools used, which is very relevant in order to encourage model developers to make available their work in the VO.

Thus, the following information must be included in all the VOTables produced by the server:

Bibliographic references:

• One or more PARAM element with name=”bibcode” ucd=”meta.bib” containing, as value=”...”, the bibcode for a publication describing the model. It can contain also a DESCRIPTION element with the text corresponding to that bibcode (authors, title...).
• These references are intended to be the ones that should be cited if someone uses this VO service for scientific publication.
• In the case that the model developer decides to include several of these PARAMs, it is recommended that they are listed in decreasing order of importance.

Acknowledgments

• One or more PARAM element with name=”acknowledgments” containing, as a DESCRIPTION element, the text that should be included in the acknowledgments section of a publication that has made use of the model.

If someone uses the VO service is encouraged to:

• Read the scientific material contained in the references to be aware fo the technical details, being sure that the model can be used for the scientific case considered by the user, etc.
• Use these references in any forthcoming publication that makes use of the model.

Any application that automatically uses this service (for instance, to fit observational data on the fly) is also encouraged to give the user an easy way to recover this information.