Research Guides: GIS (Geographic Information Systems): Data Citation Help

Standards

A dataset citation includes many of the same components of a traditional citation.

Many style manuals have not developed specific instructions for citing data. If the style guide you are using does not address data citations, you may use the basic citation elements, regardless of the type of work.

author(s) (Who created the data? an organization, individual, group of individuals) ,
title (name of the study or title of the dataset),
year of publication,
publisher (or location of where the data was found)
edition/version
access information (URL/doi where data was found)

Several discipline specific resources are listed in the "Citation Guides" tab.

Using and citing ESRI Data and Maps resources
If you use data from the ESRI Data and Maps collections on GISPUBLIC, this blog post provides information on how to properly cite those resources. The post refers to the "Redistribution Rights Matrix" but the link is for an older version of the collection. Current versions can be accessed for all of the annual collections in the GISPUBLIC\GISdata\ESRIdata folder by viewing the "help.htm" file located within each of the subfolders.
How to Cite ESRI Storymaps
This blog post by an ESRI scientist gives good advice regarding how to cite your StoryMaps.
Census Data
The U.S. Census Bureau has no specific style recommendation for citing information found on our website. There are four commonly used style systems of documentation; APA, Chicago, MLA, and CSE.
How To Cite Online Maps - APA Style Blog
How to cite directional maps generated in Google Maps.
Best Practices for Citing Cartographic Material Uof Waterloo
BEST PRACTICES IN CITATION OF CARTOGRAPHIC MATERIALS
Compiled by Alberta Auringer Wood
Bibliographic Control Committee of the Association of Canadian Map Libraries and Archives

Since MLA has not developed a specific citation style for datasets, the general rules for citing a web document may be applied.

Author Last Name, First Name. Title of data set. (Version). Publisher location: Publisher name, Date of publication. Medium of publication. Date accessed. doi/url of data

Example:

Pew Hispanic Center. Changing channels and crisscrossing cultures: A survey of Latinos on the news media. (Data file and code book). Washington, DC: Pew Research Center, 2004. Web. 19 Sep 2011. <http://pewhispanic.org/datasets/signup.php?DatasetID=5>