Citing a dataset correctly is just as important as citing articles, books, images and websites. Each dataset is a source of evidence to support your argument and should be properly credited. If you are new to using data and want more information on how to properly reference datasets in your research, why not take a look at our guides to help you “cite the data” correctly?
Reasons to Cite the Data
It is good practice to acknowledge any data source you use in your research, just as you would with a book or an article, but there are many more reasons to credit your data sources.
Citing data correctly supports the reproducibility of your research. It is impossible to analyse and verify new pieces of research if we don’t know where datasets have come from.
When you cite data you also give credit to the researchers responsible for compiling a dataset. Citing datasets enables research data funders to measure the impact of the data they provide. This demonstrates the wider value of creating and maintaining costly datasets.
What’s more, if you correctly cite data, people are more likely to build on your research and cite you, which is good for your career as a researcher.
How to cite datasets
We have developed a citation tool to make citing data easy and straightforward. You will find it on every catalogue record page at the UK Data Service. You can also learn more about how to cite data correctly at our learning hub.