Citing data is important for the same reasons as citing books, journal articles, or any other scholarly product. It gives credit to the original creator and helps others find the resource.
A dataset citation should include:
- author
- title
- year of publication
- publisher (for data this is often the repository where you found it)
- edition or version
- access information (e.g., a DOI, URL, or other persistent identifier)
Some style manuals and data providers provide specific guidelines for data citation. When those are not available, the best practice is to provide as much information about the dataset as possible in the same basic citation style as your other referenced works. See the library citation guide for more resources.
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