{"id":1941,"date":"2026-03-13T15:53:23","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T19:53:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/library\/?page_id=1941"},"modified":"2026-07-16T15:36:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T19:36:12","slug":"citing-data","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/library\/help-research-support\/data-services\/citing-data\/","title":{"rendered":"Citing Data"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>You are familiar with citing books, films, articles, and even images \u2013 but what about a collection of data from the United States Census or field notes from an anthropological study? Fortunately, the same principles apply.<\/p>\n<p>When citing data, here\u2019s the information you\u2019ll need (when available):<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Creator(s) of the data<\/li>\n<li>Title of the data set<\/li>\n<li>Year the data set was published or submitted to a repository<\/li>\n<li>Version or edition of the data set<\/li>\n<li>URL or DOI used to access the data<\/li>\n<li>Date you accessed the data<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Let\u2019s cite some data! The examples below show you how to cite two data sets: <a href=\"https:\/\/factfinder.census.gov\/faces\/tableservices\/jsf\/pages\/productview.xhtml?pid=SBO_2012_00CSCBO08&amp;prodType=table\">characteristics of business owners collected in the Survey of Business Owners<\/a>, and <a href=\"http:\/\/datadryad.org\/resource\/doi:10.5061\/dryad.5gk8j\">a data set of behavioral measurements of hunting bats collected by Gomes, et al.<\/a><\/p>\n<h4 id=\"apa\">APA<\/h4>\n<p>The American Psychological Association (APA) style is commonly used to cite sources in the social sciences. Materials in this section are based on <a href=\"https:\/\/owl.purdue.edu\/owl\/research_and_citation\/apa_style\/apa_formatting_and_style_guide\/reference_list_electronic_sources.html\">APA Style, 7th Edition<\/a> from Purdue\u2019s Online Writing Lab.<\/p>\n<p>Basic structure (eliminate elements that are missing or non-applicable):<br \/>\n<strong>Creator\/Rightsholder of Data (Year of publication). <i>Title of dataset<\/i> (Version No.) [Format of dataset]. Publisher. URL or DOI<\/strong><\/p>\n<h5>Example 1:<\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li>United States Census Bureau (2016). <i>Statistics for owners of respondent firms by owner\u2019s age by gender, ethnicity, race, and veteran status for the U.S.: 2012<\/i>. [Data file]. http:\/\/factfinder.census.gov\/faces\/tableservices\/jsf\/pages\/productview.xhtml?pid=SBO_2012_00CSCBO08&amp;prodType=table<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5>Example 2:<\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li>Gomes, D. G. E., Page, R. A., Geipel, I., Taylor, R. C., Ryan, M. J., &amp; Halfwerk, W. (2017). <i>Bats perceptually weight prey cues across sensory systems when hunting in noise<\/i> [Data file]. doi:10.5061\/dryad.5gk8j<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4 id=\"chicago---bibliography\">Chicago<\/h4>\n<p>The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.chicagomanualofstyle.org\/tools_citationguide.html\">Chicago Style, 17th Edition: Bibliography Style<\/a> is a common citation style used in literature, history, and the arts. The style provides bibliographic information in the notes and usually a bibliography.<\/p>\n<p>Rules for citing data sets are not provided in the latest edition of <em>The Chicago Manual of Style. <\/em>We recommend using the rules that the <em>Manual<\/em> provides for the most similar source type, which may be one of the following (click the link to access the <em>Manual<\/em> electronically):<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www-chicagomanualofstyle-org.ezproxy.bu.edu\/book\/ed17\/part3\/ch14\/psec187.html\">14.187: Electronic supplements or enhancements to journal articles<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www-chicagomanualofstyle-org.ezproxy.bu.edu\/book\/ed17\/part3\/ch14\/psec257.html\">14.257: Citing data from a scientific database<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www-chicagomanualofstyle-org.ezproxy.bu.edu\/book\/ed17\/part3\/ch14\/psec261.html\">14.261-268: Multimedia<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Use the structure that works best for the data set you&#8217;re citing, eliminating elements that are non-applicable.<\/p>\n<h4 id=\"mla\">MLA<\/h4>\n<p>The Modern Language Association <a href=\"https:\/\/owl.purdue.edu\/owl\/research_and_citation\/mla_style\/mla_style_introduction.html\">MLA Style (9th Edition)<\/a> is the most widely used style when it comes to writing papers and citing sources within the liberal arts and humanities community.<\/p>\n<p>Basic structure:<br \/>\n<strong>Creator\/Rightsholder of Data. <i>Title of Data Set<\/i>. Version\/Edition of data. Hosting Organization or Repository, Date of Publication. URL or DOI<\/strong><\/p>\n<h5>Example 1:<\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li>United States Census Bureau. <i>Statistics for Owners of Respondent Firms by Owner\u2019s Age by Gender, Ethnicity, Race, and Veteran Status for the U.S.: 2012<\/i>. American FactFinder version. United States Census Bureau, 2016. http:\/\/factfinder.census.gov\/faces\/tableservices\/jsf\/pages\/productview.xhtml?pid=SBO_2012_00CSCBO08&amp;prodType=table<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5>Example 2:<\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li>Gomes, Dylan G. E., Rachel A. Page, Inga Geipel, Ryan C. Taylor, Mike C. Ryan, and Wouter Halfwerk. <i>Bats Perceptually Weight Prey Cues across Sensory Systems When Hunting in Noise<\/i>. Dryad Digital Repository, 2016. 24 Aug. 2017. doi:10.5061\/dryad.5gk8j<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<aside class=\"dialogue dialogue-info\">For more information about citations, please visit the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/library\/help-research-support\/citing\/\">Citing &amp; Citation Management<\/a>\u00a0page.<\/aside>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You are familiar with citing books, films, articles, and even images \u2013 but what about a collection of data from the United States Census or field notes from an anthropological study? Fortunately, the same principles apply. When citing data, here\u2019s the information you\u2019ll need (when available): Creator(s) of the data Title of the data set [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23190,"featured_media":0,"parent":103,"menu_order":2,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1941"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23190"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1941"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1941\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4535,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1941\/revisions\/4535"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}