Managing Data Sets: Citations, Licensing, and Ethical Issues

It's important to cite data in order to:

• Give the data producer appropriate credit.
• Allow easier access to the data for re-purposing or re-use.
• Enable readers to verify your results.

Typically, the following elements should be included when citing a data set:

1. Author(s)
2. Title
3. Year of Publication
4. Publisher (the data center/repository)
5. Any application identifier (including edition or version)
6. Availability and access (URL or doi/doi link)

An example of how to appropriately cite data would be:

Irino, T; Tada, R (2009): Chemical and mineral compositions of sediments from ODP Site 127‐797. Geological Institute, University of Tokyo. http://dx.doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.726855

DataCite - gives examples of data citation.

ICPSR - offers guidelines and best practices for citing social science research data.