It is now understood that data generated in the course of research is as valuable to the ongoing academic discourse as papers and monographs. In many disciplines, the journal article alone is no longer sufficient to assert research results. Many funders, journal publishers, and institutions now require that the data underpinning the journal article be deposited or published, as a "replicating dataset", a dataset that be used again to replicate results asserted in the journal article. Data must therefore be made easily discoverable with proper citations holding persistent identifiers.
- DCC. How to Cite Datasets and Link to Publications
- DataCite. Cite Your Data and, Format Your Citation
- California Digital Library. Data Citation
Citing data should be done in similar manner to citing papers or monographs, and should hold these elements:
- author,
- title,
- year of publication,
- publisher (or the name of the archive where the data is stored),
- edition or version, and
- access information
Examples of citing data in the HKU Scholars Hub,
- APA
- The University of Hong Kong Libraries (2015). Data from: The University of Hong Kong faculty survey: report of findings: Supporting information. HKU Scholars Hub. http://hub.hku.hk/cris/dataset/dataset92801
- MLA
- The University of Hong Kong Libraries. The University of Hong Kong Faculty Survey: Report of Findings: Supporting Information [Data file]. HKU Scholars Hub [distributor], 2015. http://hub.hku.hk/cris/dataset/dataset92801