# Cite DeFi Research and Access Open Data

> Cite the specific canonical page, publication name and date. The publication’s original editorial text is available under CC BY 4.0 unless a page says otherwise: give attribution, link the licence and identify changes. Third-party material retains its own rights. Use linked Markdown, JSON catalogues and dated CSV extracts for retrieval.

Canonical: https://decentralized-finance.io/help/reuse-and-data-access/
Updated: 2026-09-30
Audience: Researchers, educators and developers

## Research outcome
Retrieve a reproducible source and attribute it accurately.

## Scope and fit
The public files are not an authenticated trading API, a guaranteed data feed or permission to reuse third-party trademarks and restricted material.

## What should a citation include?

Use the page title, “Decentralized Finance Publication”, its canonical URL and the relevant date. For a dated market figure, also preserve its source and observation date. If the primary protocol document is the evidence for a parameter, cite that document alongside our explanation.

Example format: Decentralized Finance Publication, “Sentora Proposes Aave V4 Curated Hub: Risk and Control”, 30 September 2026, [canonical report](https://decentralized-finance.io/article/aave-v4-sentora-curated-hub-proposal-september-2026/). Do not cite a search result or topic hub as though it contains the full report.


## What reuse does CC BY 4.0 allow?

The existing open licence permits sharing and adaptation of the publication’s original editorial text, including commercial reuse, subject to attribution. Provide the publication credit, original URL, [CC BY 4.0 licence link](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and an indication of changes. Do not imply that the publication endorses your interpretation or product.

A quotation, provider dataset, protocol logo or other third-party material can have different rights. Our licence does not grant rights we do not own. Check the original source’s conditions, keep its credit and distinguish our analysis from the underlying data. The [terms](https://decentralized-finance.io/terms/) explain this scope.


## Which format should I retrieve?

HTML is the canonical citation destination. Article, guide, comparison and other supported pages advertise a Markdown mirror in their page metadata. New help and learning-path pages do too. Use that advertised link rather than assuming every URL has a Markdown version. The homepage supports content negotiation; most pages provide an explicit mirror URL.

The [compact search index](https://decentralized-finance.io/search-index.json) provides titles, relative URLs, types, summaries and tags for discovery. The [knowledge catalogue](https://decentralized-finance.io/knowledge.json) carries selected published research and reader-resource content, dates and source links where available. It is a retrieval aid, not a replacement for checking a claim against its original evidence.


## How do I use the TVL download?

The [TVL table](https://decentralized-finance.io/research/top-defi-protocols-by-tvl/) links a [CSV extract](https://decentralized-finance.io/data/top-defi-protocols.csv) and [data package](https://decentralized-finance.io/data/datapackage.json). Read the dataset date and field definitions before comparing it with another snapshot. The extract represents the site’s selected DeFi protocol ranking methodology, rather than every metric in the upstream provider.

Retain DeFiLlama attribution and consult the provider’s own [API documentation](https://api-docs.defillama.com/) for current endpoints and conditions. The publication’s public files require no account or API key. They can be cached and are not a service-level guarantee; retrieve politely and respect published crawler rules.


## How can I follow updates?

Subscribe to the [news RSS feed](https://decentralized-finance.io/news/rss.xml) for dated reporting or the [general article feed](https://decentralized-finance.io/rss.xml) for broader publication updates. The [XML sitemap index](https://decentralized-finance.io/sitemap-index.xml) lists crawl surfaces; the News sitemap uses a rolling 48-hour publication window. An older report remains accessible after it leaves that news window.

The [AI discovery index](https://decentralized-finance.io/llms.txt) helps a tool locate supported formats and sources. It does not guarantee inclusion or citation by an AI system. If you find a retrieval mismatch, use [Contact](https://decentralized-finance.io/contact/) with the exact URL and the conflicting field.


## Next steps

1. [Open the structured catalogue](https://decentralized-finance.io/knowledge.json)
2. [Download the dated TVL dataset](https://decentralized-finance.io/research/top-defi-protocols-by-tvl/)
3. [Read reuse terms](https://decentralized-finance.io/terms/)

Original editorial text: CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Third-party material retains its own rights.