Find, reuse and cite data

Research data is the same as any other type of publication. You should cite it as you would any other source.

Citing data from a third party

If you are reusing data from other researchers or organisations, make sure you record the source of the data. If you publish work informed by the data, cite it as you would any other academic source: that is, with appropriate citations within the text and as an entry in your reference list.

Data citation formats vary depending upon journal house style. You should make sure to include enough information to identify the data unambiguously. Where available, include any unique identifier – such as a DOI or a handle – for the data.

A simple data citation format is:

• Creator (Publication Year): Title. Version. Publisher. Resource Type. Identifier
• For example: H.E.M Cool, Mark Bell (2011): Excavations at St Peter's Church, Barton-upon-Humber. York: Archaeology Data Service. Dataset. https://doi.org/10.5284/1000389

General advice on citing any type of academic output is available from the Library referencing pages.

Citing your own data

We recommend that you include a citation to your own data within the text and include a full reference in your reference list.

In addition to the entry in the reference list, some funders and journals require a data access and sharing statement. There are some good tips for writing a data access and sharing statement on the Springer Nature Research Data blog.

There is evidence that publications with associated datasets are more highly cited.