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Citing Sources

Referencing, avoiding plagiarism, and presentation of the Chicago Style

Why is Data Citation Important?

Making research data open and accessible to other researchers, so that they can reuse the data and verify the results has become an important issue. Dataset citation allows data creators to receive credit and recognition for their work and rewards them for sharing their data. Most citation styles, including the Chicago style, do not currently address this issue and do not provide a true citation format.

What Belongs in a Data Citation?

More or less the same information as in the citation of other sources:

  • Name of the author
  • Title of the dataset
  • Year of publication
  • Data repository or archive
  • A persistent identifier, such as a DOI

Principles and Examples