While citation styles don’t always offer clear guidance for datasets, citing data is just as important as citing articles—it gives credit to producers and helps readers locate the source. While there is some debate over dataset citation standards, and some citation styles do not offer specific guidance for citing data, in general users should include the same basic information as other citations. At the least include:

•     Author
•     Title
•     Year/date of publication
•     Publisher (the archive or repository where the data are stored)
•     Edition/version
•     Access information (URL or DOI)

Here are a couple of examples using NaNDA datasets:

APA (7th)

Li, M., Gomez-Lopez, I., Khan, A., Clarke, P., and Chenoweth, M. (2022). National Neighborhood Data Archive (NaNDA): Broadband Internet Availability, Speed, and Adoption by Census Tract and ZIP Code Tabulation Area, United States, 2014-2020. [Data set]. ICPSR.  https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR38567.v1

AMA (11th)

Clarke, P, Melendez, R, Noppert, G, Chenoweth, M, Gypin, L. National Neighborhood Data Archive (NaNDA): Socioeconomic Status and Demographic Characteristics of Census Tracts and ZIP Code Tabulation Areas, United States, 1990-2022. Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR). Updated January 22, 2025. Accessed October 22, 2025. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR38528.v5

For more assistance and examples, see the Citation Help Guide from University of Michigan Library.