Research Guides: Social Sciences Data & Statistics Resources: Citing Data

Important Components of a Dataset Citation

It must be cited if data that is not your own research data. Data should be cited within a publication just as other literature is cited. Use the appropriate format based on the style you're using (eg. APA, Chicago, Turabian, etc.). Important elements of a citation include the following:

Author (creator of the dataset)
Title of dataset
Publication date of dataset
Publisher (Name of repository)
Date accessed
Version number (if more than one)
Location (URL/DOI to access dataset)
Universal, persistent Identifier (PID)
Some way to resolve the PID (DOIs and ARKs both have resolution services)

For more help with citation style, visit the guides listed on the right.

Data Set Example Citations (APA)

APA Reference Format

Who	When	What	Where
Author, A.	(Year).	Title of dataset (Version number) [Data set].	Publisher name.	https://doi.org/xxx https://xxxx
Name of Group.	(Year).	Title of dataset (Unpublished raw data).	Source of unpublished data.	Retrieved Month dd, Year, from https://xxxx

Reference Citation Example

O’Donohue, W. (2017). Content analysis of undergraduate psychology textbooks (ICPSR 36966; Version V1) [Data set]. ICPSR. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR36966.v1

Parenthetical Citation Example: (O’Donohue, 2017)

Narrative Citation Example: O’Donohue (2017)