Essential Citation Elements
When citing datasets, here are the essential elements to include in the citations:
-
Author: Name(s) of the individual(s) or organizational entity responsible for the creation of the dataset.
-
Date of Publication: Year the dataset was published or disseminated.
-
Title: Complete title of the dataset, including the edition or version number, if applicable.
-
Publisher and/or Distributor: Organizational entity that makes the dataset available by archiving, producing, publishing, and/or distributing the dataset.
-
Electronic Location or Identifier: Web address or unique, persistent, global identifier used to locate the dataset (such as a DOI). Append the date retrieved if the title and locator are not specific to the exact instance of the data you used.
Tip: If you are using a citation manager such as RefWorks or Zotero, there is not a record type for "datasets" so instead use the "book" record type. Enter the pertinent information in the author, date, title, and publisher fields. Insert the URL/DOI in both the place of publication field and the DOI or URL field.
Data Citation Tools and Guides
- Quick Guide to Data Citation from the International Association for Social Science Information Services & Technology (IASSIST)
- DOI Citation Formatter from DataCite.org - extract metadata automatically from a DOI and build a full citation
- How to Cite Datasets and Link to Publications from the Digital Curation Centre (DCC)