Creating data for public use is fun.
What's not fun? When commercial entities take that data, repackage it, and trot it out as their own without crediting their sources.

Cite your sources. 1/

Many of us in the academic research community get paid based on the value of our work to society.

When you don't cite your sources, you deny us the chance to demonstrate the value of our work, & thus undermine our ability to do that work. 2/

We are passionate about what we do, but passion doesn't get us paid. We get paid when funders speculate on our ability to do valuable work efficiently. They judge that based on our track records. 3/

When media outlets, orgs, & consultants use our work without citing it, it erases our efforts, making us appear neither valuable nor efficient, and thus a bad bet for future funding. 4/

And if we don't get funded, we can't continue to do valuable work. It also makes it hard to eat.

So, failing to cite your sources isn't just bad manners. It's stealing from the future--ours and yours. 5/5