Research Data Management

Cite Data

Cite data in your paper/presentation so that you can:

• Give the data producer appropriate credit
• Enable readers of your work to access the data, for their own use and to replicate your results
• Fulfills some publisher requirements

Include in your citation:

• Author(s)
• Title
• Year of publication
• Publisher or distributor
• URL, identifier, or other access location

Using citation software or style guides? In Endnote use the reference type for "dataset." If you're using Mendeley or Zotero, make due with using other more generic reference type templates and fill in the essentials for your dataset.

Cite data: examples

Want detailed guidelines for citing data?  See:

• Quick Guide to Data Citation (IASSIST)
• How to Cite Data (MSU)
• How to Cite Datasets and Link to Publications (DCC)
• DataCite example citation

Examples of data citations include:

• Cite a complete dataset, e.g.:
  • Bachman, Jerald G., Lloyd D. Johnston, and Patrick M. O'Malley. Monitoring the Future: A Continuing Study of American Youth (12th-Grade Survey), 1998 [Computer file]. Conducted by University of Michigan, Survey Research Center. ICPSR02751-v1. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [producer and distributor], 2006-05-15. http://dx.doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR02751.
  • ASTER Global Digital Elevation Model, version 1, ASTGTM_N11E122_num.tif, ASTGTM_N11E123_num.tif, Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI) of Japan and NASA, downloaded from https://wist.echo.nasa.gov/api/, October 27, 2009
• Cite a subject archive entry, e.g.:
  Genbank accession number, available at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.

Data archives may provide guidelines on how to cite the data, e.g.,:

• Data catalogs like the Harvard Dataverse Network and ICPSR have standard citations included in the study record.
• ICPSR: Why and how should I cite data?
• How to Cite Roper Center Data
• Dryad Data Citation Guidelines
• Earth Science Information Partner Federation Data Stewardship/Citations
• NOAA Paleoclimatology Program: Data Citation
• PANGEA Citation
• Citing and linking to the Gene Expression Omnibus (NCBI) database

Using Zotero

As Zotero currently lacks an "item type" for datasets, enter the citation in the system as a "Document," depending upon if/how the data producer provides a recommended citation; either:

• Export an RIS file and import this file into Zotero
• Copy and paste the information from a recommended citation into a new Zotero item with the type "Document"
• Otherwise, use the "Document" item type to add the components of the citation

See Zotero documentation and also our guide on using Zotero.

A DOI For Your Dataset

A DOI, or Digital Object Identifier, is a persistent identifier which aims to perpetually resolve to an information object. The objects can be an online article, research document, journal article, and even a dataset.  Here is an example of a DOI:10.1000/182. This URL will resolve to the object https://doi.org/10.1000/182. Adding a DOI to you dataset will help readers locate it now and in the future.

For datasets, the Figshare, Zenodo, and Dryad repositories will provide a DOI for uploaded works. In addition, there may be a domain-specific repository in your field which provides a DOI for datasets. The journal Scientific Data maintains a good list of repositories you can look at.