Microattribution

The term microattribution (a form of data citation) was first defined as "giving database accessions the same citation conventions and indices that journal articles currently enjoy". In the sense that the purpose of precise attribution is to extend the scholarly convention of giving citation credit, the provenance of a piece of scholarship (observation or data deposition) is recognized to give credit and priority to a preceding author. Microattribution is thus defined as "a scholarly contribution smaller than a journal article being ascribed to a particular author" or a small scholarly contribution being ascribed to a particular author. Of course, since data accessions can describe contributions that can vastly exceed research articles in size and quality, quantum attribution or precise citation might be better terms. Barend Mons and Jan Velterop proposed nanopublications for single, attributable and machine-readable assertions in scientific literature.