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Citing data sets
Citing data: As with any reference: if you use the work of others, you must cite your source.
See the Libraries' Data Management guide on Citing Data. Many style guides do not provide specific guidelines for citing data sets. Those presented here are intended to be a guide but are not definitive. When in doubt, check with your professor.
The citation of a data set should include these basic elements: (from North Carolina State University- with examples)
- Creator or author
- Publication year — date when dataset was published or released (not the collection or coverage date)
- Title of the data set
- Publisher — the data center or repository
- Identifier, including edition or version
- Availability and access — typically a URL or digital object identifier
Although many style guides do not offer examples for data citations, they can give general guidance about formatting these elements.
What is this Data page for?
- Find and cite research data from other researchers to use in your work
- Find a place to archive the data from your research.
Grant-awarding agencies like the NSF require a data management plan in their grant applications. Consider making your data available and useful for other researchers.
- Open Data CommonsA set of legal tools to help you provide and use Open Data.
Open Data Repositories for Environmental Conservation
Collections of research data, usually from peer-reviewed articles. Data are open access - anyone can use the data (unless otherwise noted) in these repositories with proper attribution.
Selected repositories from Open Access Directory/Data repositories. See this site for a more extensive list of data repositories in many subject areas.
- BCO-DMOThe Biological and Chemical Oceanography Data Management Office provides access to data sets contributed by investigators funded by the Biological and Chemical Oceanography sections of the US National Science Foundation (NSF).
- DataONEAn international federation of data repositories containing earth observations data, including data from fields such as ecology, biology, evolution, and environmental sciences such as hydrology, oceanography, and atmospheric science. DataONE is a federation with participation from hundreds of field stations, universities, and government agencies through the DataONE Member Nodes.
- DryadAn international repository of data underlying peer-reviewed articles in the basic and applied biosciences. From the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent) and the University of North Carolina Metadata Research Center, in coordination with a large group of journals and societies in evolutionary biology and ecology
- ESA Data RegistryData sets associated with articles published in the journals of the Ecological Society of America.
- Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF)Free and open access to biodiversity data through a global network of countries and organizations; promotes and facilitates the mobilization, access, discovery and use of information about the occurrence of organisms over time and across the planet.
- National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON)Gathers and provides 30 years of ecological data on the impacts of climate change, land use change and invasive species on natural resources and biodiversity. A joint project of 50+ US universities and laboratories.
- TreeBASEA repository of phylogenetic information representing all biotic taxa [i.e., not just on woody plants!], specifically user-submitted phylogenetic trees and the data used to generate them. Hosted by the Phyloinformatics Research Foundation.
Why Good Data Management is Important
- Last Updated: Apr 3, 2024 10:59 AM
- URL: https://guides.library.umass.edu/eco
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