Why cite data?

We believe that you should cite data in just the same way that you can cite other sources of information, such as articles and books. Data citation can help by:

  • enabling easy reuse and verification of data
  • allowing the impact of data to be tracked
  • creating a scholarly structure that recognises and rewards data producers

Examples of data citation

We recognise that the challenges associated with data publication vary across disciplines and encourage research communities to develop citation systems that work well for them. Our recommended format for a data citation is as follows:

  • Creator (PublicationYear): Title. Publisher. Identifier

It may also be desirable to include information from two optional properties, Version and ResourceType (as appropriate). If so, the recommended form is as follows:

  • Creator (PublicationYear): Title. Version. Publisher. ResourceType. Identifier

For citation purposes, DataCite recommends that DOI names are displayed as linkable, permanent URLs:

DataCite helps researchers to find, access, and reuse data (Impressum).