DOI^® and Citations

DOI

The DOI (Digital Object Identifier) is used for identifying content in the digital environment.  It is a persistent identifier that is unambiguous and permanently assigned. The use of DOIs for the citing of data sets makes their provenance trackable and citable and therefore allows interoperability with existing reference services.

The University’s Research Data Catalogue, creates a DOI when you upload your data files. You can use this DOI in data statements, articles and other publications that are based on this data and in other digital communications, such as social media.

When choosing a repository you should make sure that your dataset is given a DOI.

If you already have a DOI because your data is in another repository, this can be entered into a metadata only record in the Research Data Catalogue.

Cite and be cited

There is evidence publications with associated datasets are more highly cited. 

The exact format a data citation should take is currently under debate, though common practice is emerging as more datasets are made available online.

If you use data from an online data repository, there may be a recommended citation format; any journal you publish with may have a dataset citation house style.

As a minimum, citations should include:

• Creator(s)
• Title
• Year of publication
• Publisher (e.g. the data repository storing the data)
• A version identifier (if applicable)
• An identifier (ideally a DOI, otherwise a static URL).

Further information

Please visit the Digital Curation Centre guide to citing datasets.