Data management good practices

Giving appropriate attribution to research data improves data discoverability, signals the usefulness and fitness of data, provides citable contributions to the scholarly record, and supports long-term reusability. Many journals and publishers recognize the need to cite data in articles. Here is a list of journals that have open data policies.

Use this general guide to both create your own data citation, if needed, and cite datasets that you used in your research.

• Data authors. Just as with a manuscript publication, data authors should include all who helped to create the dataset, such as study PI, data collector, data analyst, etc.)
• Dataset title. Include a title that is unique, different or separate from the associated manuscript title. 
• Location of the data. Name the data repository that houses the data, or indicate where the data may be discovered.
• Bibliographic metadata. Include year, edition, volume, or version of the dataset.
• Viewing platform, if applicable. Some datasets are available only via special interactive viewers. Indicate which viewer was used to generate the data you selected/used. 
• Parameters selected or used, if applicable. If citing secondary data, indicate which sections of the dataset that you used. 
• Date accessed. If citing secondary data, include the date you last accessed it.
• Persistent URL. All published datasets should have a persistent URL, the most common of which is a DOI. A persistent URL is a link that remains the same over time, even when the website it connects to is updated.

Dataset from a data repository: 
Cassidy, Kira et al. (2022). Gray wolf packs and human-caused wolf mortality [Dataset]. Dryad. https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.mkkwh713f

Tables, charts, graphs, maps or figures appearing in a publication:
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. “Table 373. Threatened and Endangered Wildlife and Plant Species: 2009.” Statistical Abstract of the United States. Year: 2010. https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/2010/compendia/statab/129ed/tables/geo.pdf. Accessed: 09/04/2024. 

Interactive Database with static URLs:
United States Bureau of the Census. “Population Change.” Dataset: 2020 Census Demographic Data Map Viewer. Parameters selected: Population Change. Date Generated: 09/04/2024. https://maps.geo.census.gov/ddmv/map.html

Interactive Database without static URLs:
Bureau of Economic Analysis. "Per Capita real GDP by state (chained 2000 dollars)." Dataset: Gross Domestic Product by State. Parameters: all industry total, 2008, all states and regions. Regional Economic Accounts. Date Generated: 11/04/09.

American Chemical Society's Style for Printed Data Sets:
Rind, D. 1994. General Circulation Model Output Data Set. IGBP PAGES/World Data Center for Paleoclimatology Data Contribution Series #1994-012. NOAA/NCDC Paleoclimatology Program, Boulder, Colorado, USA.

American Chemical Society’s style for Data from a Database:
4-Bromo-2-fluorotoluene. SDBSWeb. National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology. n.d. https://sdbs.db.aist.go.jp (accessed 2019-03-17). (CAS RN: 51436-99-8).

Geoscience Information Society's Style for Data Sets:
Defosse, G.E., and M. Bertiller. 1998. NPP Grassland: Media Luna, Argentina, 1981-1983. Data set. Available on-line [http://www.daac.ornl.gov/] from Oak Ridge National Laboratory Distributed Active Archive Center, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, U.S.A.M