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Data Guide: Working with Data

A guide to citing, managing, and incorporating data into your research.

Why Cite Data?

Citing a dataset is as important as citing books, articles, and other works for similar reasons: 

  • Supports reproducibility of research
  • Attributes credit to those who provided the data
  • Allows for tracking reuse and measuring impact

Often, the information in the published study is not sufficient to fully evaluate the research, so the underlying data is needed.

How to Cite Data

A few basics to keep in mind

The way you cite data is very similar to the way you cite a book, article, or website. As with any type of source you are citing, you’ll need to cite the data you are referencing both in-text (i.e. where you mention the data in your paper) and in the reference list.

When citing any data, you want to include the necessary information to help readers identify,  find and access the data you used.

Elements to include in your citation

  • Author(s) 
  • Year or date of publication
  • Publisher/distributer 
  • Version
  • Dataset Title
  • Electronic Location or Identifier (url, DOI, etc.)

These are the minimum elements required for dataset identification and retrieval. Fewer or additional elements may be requested by author guidelines or style manuals. Be sure to include as many elements as needed to precisely identify the dataset you have used.

Guides on data citation 

Examples

For examples of how to cite data in some commonly used citation styles (APA, MLA, and Chicago), see the tabs in this section. 

 

See also: Macalester Library Citation Guide

Example citation of data using American Psychological Association 7th ed.

Finlay, J.M., Melendez, R., Pan, L., Esposito, M., Khan, A., Li, M., Gomez-Lopez, I., Clarke, P., Noppert, G.A., Chenoweth, M., Gypin, L. (2023). National Neighborhood Data Archive (NaNDA): Polluting Sites by Census Tract and ZIP Code Tabulation Area, United States, 1987-2021. Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR38597.v2

APA Resources

For additional information on the American Psychological Association style, review the resources in this list

Example citation of data using Modern Language Association (MLA) 9th ed.

Finlay, Jessica M., et al. “National Neighborhood Data Archive (NaNDA): Polluting Sites by Census Tract and ZIP Code Tabulation Area, United States, 1987-2021.” ICPSR38597.v2. Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research, 4, Dec 4 2023, https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR38597.v2.

Example citation of data using Chicago (17th edition) (author-date)

Finlay, Jessica M., Robert Melendez,  Longrong Pan, et al. 2023. National Neighborhood Data Archive (NaNDA): Polluting Sites by Census Tract and ZIP Code Tabulation Area, United States, 1987-2021. ICPSR38597.v2. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research. Distributed by Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR38597.v2.