Data Literacy Teaching Toolkit

Citing data is just as necessary as citing journal articles, books, and other types of sources that are used in your research. Citing data is an important research practice that ensures that your research can be:

• Discovered by others.
• Reused and replicated for verification.
• Cited in new research, hence recognized and built upon by the research community.
• Tracked to measure usage and impact.

Just as when you cite journal articles, books, etc., data citations have key element that allow a specific dataset to be identified:

• Author or Creator
• Date
• Title
• Publisher or Distributer Organization
• Version
• Persistent identifier, such as the Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

Otherwise, you may follow citation guidelines like APA that are appropriate to your discipline, field, or publication.