Citing data is essential to ensuring transparency, reproducibility, and recognition in research. Just as scholarly articles are cited, datasets must be acknowledged to give proper credit to data authors and to support the discovery, access, and reuse of research data.
At CESSDA, we advocate for best practices in data citation across the social sciences. This guide is designed to support the entire research ecosystem—from individual researchers to policymakers—in fostering a more coherent, FAIR-aligned, and sustainable data citation culture.
What you will find in this guide
The Data Citation Guide begins by explaining why data citation matters and what a data citation should include.
It then offers targeted and practical recommendations for different stakeholder groups:
- Data repositories
- Authors of publications mentioning and/or using data
- Academic journals and publishers
- Research performing organisations (RPOs)
- High-level research policy and strategy development entities
- Ethics committees
About this guide
The Data Citation Guide has been developed by the CESSDA Data Citation Working Group, with contributions from experts at the following CESSDA Service Providers: FORS (Switzerland), SND (Sweden), FSD (Finland), Sikt (Norway), ADP (Slovenia), and CSDA (Czechia).
This guide is based on the publication:
Bornatici, C., Jernung, A., Alaterä, T. J., Tveit Sandberg, L., Strand, K., Štebe, J., & Trtíková, I. (2025). CESSDA Recommendations on Data Citation: Practical Recommendations for Key Stakeholders. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15043854
This is version 1.0 of the guide, published on 24 April 2025.