Citation File Format (CFF)

A Citation File Format (CFF) is a computer file that contains all information needed to cite something. For example, a dataset or a piece of software.

Several data and software repositories, such as Zenodo and GitHub, support this format and enable others to easily select the citation information in their preferred format. Most reference managers can work with these standardized citation files, and automatically format the references in a document.

Cite a GitHub repository that contains a citation file — A screenshot of the interface to cite a GitHub repository

An example, CFF-file is given below, but to enable you to easily create a CFF-file you can use this website.

cff-version: 1.2.0
message: "If you use this data, please cite it as below."
authors:
 - family-names: Druskat
   given-names: Stephan
   orcid: https://orcid.org/1234-5678-9101-1121
title: "My Research Software"
version: 2.0.4
identifiers:
  - type: doi
    value: 10.5281/zenodo.1234
date-released: 2021-08-11