Citing datasets

As an ethical consumer of research data, you should give a complete citation for any dataset that you use for a publication, presentation, etc. Data sets are an important output of scholarly research and should be cited when used (like you would cite a scholarly publication).

Preferred citation

If you re-use data from a data center or repository, there is often a preferred citation in the summary of the dataset. See the example below from Dryad, a biological sciences data repository.

Source: http://datadryad.org/resource/doi:10.5061/dryad.bn1gf

General Data Citation Guidelines

• DataONE: Data Citation and Attribution
• Citing any data set using MLA, APA and Chicago styles
• Extended guide on How to Cite Data sets and Link to Publications

Examples of Data Citation Guidelines from specific data repositories

• ICPSR (Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research)
• Dryad (a biological sciences data repository)