Creating data for public use is fun.
What& #39;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& #39;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& #39;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& #39;t get funded, we can& #39;t continue to do valuable work. It also makes it hard to eat.

So, failing to cite your sources isn& #39;t just bad manners. It& #39;s stealing from the future--ours and yours. 5/5