Reference Department - Data Services

How to Cite a Data Set

When you collect your own data, citing its location makes it possible for others to find it and extend your research, raising your profile as a researcher. ICPSR notes that citations are important because:

• "Citations appearing in publication references are harvested by key electronic social sciences indexes, such as Web of Science, providing credit to the researchers.

• Data producers, funding agencies, and others can track citations to specific collections to determine types and levels of usage, thus measuring impact."

If you're using data you didn't gather yourself, citing your source is just as important as citing your other research sources. For other scholars to be able to examine and extend your work, they must be able to find the original data.

Consequently, although most style guides do not include examples for citing data sets, consider the following elements and work them into the style you're using:

Element	Description	Example
Author	The original researcher(s) who collected the data	Dr. Anyone So-and-so
Study name/Title	What did the original researcher call it?	Longitudinal study of bicycle use in the Andes
Producer	The organization that sponsored the research, usually the author's institution. This takes the place of a publisher in an ordinary citation, so be prepared to list the place of publication as well. It may be useful to add a designation like [producer] if it is not actually a publisher.	Richmond, IN: Earlham College [producer]
Year Data Produced	When did the Producer first release the data set? Treat this like the publication date.	1980

Other Possible Elements

Element	Description	Example
Unique Identifier, like a Digital Object Identifier (DOI)	If you got the data from a repository like ICPSR, note their unique identifier as part of the title. If the data set has a DOI, include it as you would a url for a web site. Check here for information on how to obtain a DOI.	Study number 8326944 or doi:10.1000/182
Distributor	The organization that makes the data available. From what organization did you get it? If directly from the author, listing the author's institution/organization once (as the publisher) is sufficient. However if the distributor is different from the producer, it's important to list it separately; it may be useful to add a designation like [distributor] to clarify its role.	ICPSR [distributor] The Roper Center for Public Opinion Research [distributor]
Year Data Collected	When did the original researcher collect the data? You may choose how specific to be--it may only be important to list the years.	Data collected May through August, in years 1976 through 1979.

Examples

If you're using ICPSR data, you're in luck--ICPSR not only provides citations, its web site offers a download option to export citations directly into bibliographic citation software like RefWorks.

Consider submitting your publication to the ICPSR Bibliography of Data-Related Literature. It will help other scholars find all the works based on a given data set. Email bibliography@icpsr.umich.edu to submit citations for inclusion.

Citation examples from ICPSR:

ABC News, and The Washington Post. ABC News/Washington Post Poll, May 2007 [Computer file]. ICPSR24588-v1. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2009-04-17. doi:10.3886/ICPSR24588

United States Department of Commerce. Bureau of the Census, and United States Department of Labor. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Current Population Survey: Annual Demographic File, 1987 [Computer file]. ICPSR08863-v2. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2009-02-03. doi:10.3886/ICPSR08863 

Johnston, Lloyd D., Jerald G. Bachman, Patrick M. O'Malley, and John E. Schulenberg. Monitoring the Future: A Continuing Study of American Youth (12th-Grade Survey), 2007 [Computer File]. ICPSR22480-v1. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2008-10-29. doi:10.3886/ICPSR22480

Hall, David, Clement Leduka, Michael Bratton, E. Gyimah-Boadi, and Robert Mattes. Afrobarometer Round 3: The Quality of Democracy and Governance in Lesotho, 2005 [Computer file]. ICPSR22203-v1. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2009-05-19. doi:10.3886/ICPSR22203

Citation example from Roper:

Cable News Network, USA Today. CNN/USA Today/Gallup Poll # 2000-20:
Microsoft/Parents/'Socially Responsible' [computer file]. 1st Roper Center for Public Opinion Research version. Lincoln, NE: Gallup Organization [producer], 2000. Storrs, CT: The Roper Center, University of Connecticut [distributor], 2001.

Another Resource

Roistacher, Richard C. A Style Manual for Machine-Readable Data Files and Their Documentation. Washington, DC: US Dept. of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1980. Print copies of this publication are available in both Davis Library Reference Federal Documents and the Law Library.