Find and cite other users data
Research Data Management isn’t only about making your research data available for others to use, but it’s also important to understand where you can locate datasets and effectively cite them. By citing datasets appropriately, you are providing information on how to find the dataset and, more importantly, giving credit to the data creator.
Finding Data
Data repositories provide access to a wealth of datasets, which may be useful for your research. Many dataset repositories exist, but consider searching, directories of repositories such as and or subject specific repositories like and .
Citing Data
Exact standards for datasets are still in development and different providers recommend different types of information are provided. The Australian National Data Service has produced a that might prove useful.
Mandatory Information:
- Title: The name of the dataset
- Creator: One or more researchers involved in the creation of the data, in priority order.
- Publisher: The name of an entity responsible for storing, curating, or sharing the data. For example, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.
- Publication Date: The date of release. If an embargo period has been applied, state the date that it ends.
- Identifier: An identifier that indicates the unique, or at least distinct, instance of the data that was used. This may be a Digital Object Identifier (DOI), URL, or other ID.
Optional Information:
- Resource Type: An indicator of the content contained in the resource. E.g. Collection, Dataset, Event, Film, Image, InteractiveResource, Model, PhysicalObject, Service, Software, Sound, Text
- Version: The version number, edition, or generation date of a resource. Versioning is particularly important if a resource has gone through several development versions.
- Creation Date: The date that the current version was created. Creation date is particularly important for unpublished data.