If data is reused in the forest and no one is around to hear it, did it happen? A citation count investigation.

In this practice paper I will describe the process and results of tracking a citation from a data repository through the article publication process and trying to add a citation to one of our DOIs. I will also discuss some other confusing aspects related to citation counts as indicated in various systems. Although I discovered numerous problems with citations, they still seem to be one of the best ways to determine if a dataset has been downloaded and used (rather than accessed by a bot), especially with repositories that do not require people to login or provide an email to download a dataset. Nonetheless, the lack of transparency in some these systems and processes obscures how and where data is being used.