Citing research objects, such as data and software, is an expected practice in AGU journals. Moreover, there is broad recognition that persistent and machine-actionable identification of research objects is critical to stewarding and re-using data.  Although there are established citation guidelines, researchers and data stewards struggle with questions like: what level of data granularity requires a persistent identifier? When in the data/software lifecycle should a persistent identifier be assigned? When should versioning impact persistent identifier assignment? When should a research dependency be cited? When is it necessary to cite general purpose software like MatLab or just the package you used in MatLab? When and how should other research objects — instruments, samples, protocols, etc. — be cited?

In this session, we seek papers describing examples of research and implementation efforts that discuss how various research objects could or should be cited or identified, when, and in what context.