Citing Geospatial Data
When citing a shapefile, GeoTIFF, web service, or any other geospatial layer, follow the ACMLA Recommended Best Practices, which call for seven core elements: creator, dataset title, scale or geographic extent, publisher, year, file format, and a persistent URL or DOI. Below are some helpful citation guides and examples:
- Brock University: How to Reference Maps & Data
- University of Waterloo Guide for Citing Geospatial Resources
- Statistics Canada Citation Guide: Maps and Geospatial Products
Citing Paper and Scanned Maps
For print or scanned sheet maps such as National Topographic System maps, historical fire-insurance plans, or georeferenced air photos, list the sheet title, edition or flight number, scale, publishing agency, year, and the holding institution. Below are three excellent resources for correctly citing paper maps in academic work.
1. University of North Texas — Citations & Style Guide
Offers detailed examples for a wide variety of map formats—including single-sheet maps, atlases, facsimiles, topographic series, and more formatted according to Chicago-style conventions.
2. University of Wisconsin–Madison — Guide to Citing Geospatial Data, Maps, or Atlases
Provides structured guidance on citing maps, geospatial data, and atlases, with explicit templates and examples for single sheet maps, map series, facsimiles, book or journal embedded maps, and GIS produced maps.
3. Boise State University — Maps Citations
A user friendly guide offering APA and MLA style formats for citing sheet maps with author, year, title, edition, scale, and publisher information.
Licensing
Most datasets in the GMDC inventory and Scholars GeoPortal are covered by TMU’s academic site licences, allowing teaching, research, and publication as long as you credit the source and do not redistribute the raw files. Some open data layers carry Creative Commons or Open Government licences which may prohibit commercial use and impose secure storage and deletion clauses when your project ends, so always review the licence text linked on each record.