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Harvard Biblographic Style Guide

Guide of the University Library of the University of Alicante on the Harvard citation style (4th edition 2025) developed by Harvard University and used in the fields of Physics, Natural Sciences, Social Sciences and Economics.

Research data

Research data is material generated or collected while conducting research.

In recent years it has become increasingly evident that datasets, which are essential to scientific works, must be properly cited and referenced. This will make it easier to identify and retrieve them, make them available on platforms and other resources and disseminate them.

When citing and referencing datasets, certain elements are Required (R), whereas others are Optional (O), but recommended:

Image indicating which elements are mandatory or recommended. Elements that are considered mandatory: author(s), date, title, persistent unique identifier, resource type, version and/or edition; elements that are recommended: author identifier, data repository, publication, producer, geographical scope and temporal scope.

 

(Diagram of elements based on REBIUN, Cited your research data).

DOI Citation Formatter is a service offered by DataCite that automatically generates citations and references in the style you select.

Let’s look at an example, following the recommendations of the Spanish Council of University Presidents (CRUE) and the Spanish Network of University Libraries (REBIUN). The required elements are:

 

FORMAT

Surname(s) of the author(s), initial(s) (year) Title of the dataset. [Dataset]. Version and/or edition. Data repository. Persistent identifier. 

 

EXAMPLE

Remesar Betlloch, X. et al. (2015) Influence of a hyperlipidic diet on the composition of the non-membrane lipid 6 pool of red blood cells of male and female rats. [Dataset]. Version of 22 June 2015. UAB Digital Document Repository. Http://hdl.handle.net/2445/66010.

Image of a table with bibliographic data of research data "Influence of a hyperlipidic diet on the composition of the non-membrane lipid 6 pool of red blood cells of male and female rats".

 

Remember that the reference can also include optional elements that you think are important. The above structure is the most basic one if we remove the repository where the dataset is located.

However, as a dataset can be available in several repositories at the same time, we thought it would be interesting to include it.

If deemed appropriate, the date of consultation can be indicated as in the electronic works we have already seen in this manual.