Just as you would cite books, articles, and websites in a paper, you also need to provide citations for statistics and datasets. This allows readers to see where your data came from, and if necessary trace it back to the source. The International Association for Social Science Information Service & Technology (IASSIST) suggests five minimal elements in their Quick Guide for Data Citation:
- Author: individual or organization that created the data
- Publication Date: year data was published or distributed
- Title: name of the dataset, including edition or version number
- Publisher and/or Distributor: organization that makes the dataset available
- Electronic Location or Identifier: web address or persistent, unique ID, and a retrieval date if the title and locator omit this information
Different citation styles may require additional elements, but they all require these at minimum. The order and formatting of elements varies based on the style. For more information see the Brown Library's Citation Research Guide.
