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Why and how should I cite SAMHDA data?

Citing data files in publications based on those data is important for several reasons:

  • Other researchers may want to replicate research findings and need the bibliographic information provided in citations to identify and locate the referenced data.
  • Citations appearing in publication references are harvested by key electronic social sciences indexes, such as Web of Science, providing credit to the researchers.
  • Data producers, funding agencies, and others can track citations to specific collections to determine types and levels of usage, and thus measure impact.

Where do I find the citation?

Citations for SAMHDA data can be found in the following locations:

  1. Study descriptions on study home pages
  2. File manifest
  3. PDF study description file

Both the file manifest and the PDF study description file are automatically included with every download. Thus, every download is accompanied by a copy of the standard citation that can be copied and pasted.

What do the citations look like?

An example citation to be used for all of the 2016 PUF dataset files, including the documentation (codebook, questionnaire specs, showcards, screener) and dataset downloads in SAS, SPSS, Stata, ASCII, delimited, and R:

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Center for Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality. (2018). National Survey on Drug Use and Health 2016 (NSDUH-2016-DS0001). Retrieved from https://datafiles.samhsa.gov/

If an author wants to cite only the 2016 PUF codebook, the recommended reference is:

Center for Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality. (2018). 2016 National Survey on Drug Use and Health Public Use File Codebook. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Rockville, MD. Retrieved from https://datafiles.samhsa.gov/

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