Finding and citing research data

Research data is made available through various channels: specific data repositories, as supplements to publications, or even on private websites. Various tools are available to help find research data.

Find repositories

A good place to start looking for published research data is the re3data.org registry that lists all major data repositories in all scientific disciplines. Searching for repositories be conducted using specific keywords or by subject classification. Specific data can then be searched in the identified repositories.

Search for data sets

A good entry point for directly searching research data is the DataCite Search Portal. All research data that has been assigned a DOI will be listed in this portal. Google also offers a search engine for scientific data. The quality of the search depends on the metadata of the datasets and can therefore vary considerably.

Check reusability

Depending on data type or intended use, certain legal conditions may apply for reuse. Ideally, datasets are provided with a free license or will otherwise define conditions for reuse.

Cite research data

Reused research data can be cited like other scientific literature. Guidance on citing research data can be found, for example, at Data Cite.