Data requires citations for the same reasons journal articles and other types of publications require citations: to acknowledge the original author/producer and to help other researchers find the resource.
A dataset citation includes all of the same components as any other citation:
Be sure to follow the general citation format for the style manual your professor has asked you to use. It is always better to provide more information about a resource rather than less!
How to structure a Reference List/Works Cited entry for a data set, APA Seventh Edition:
Author/Researchers Last Name, First Initial. (Publication Date). Title of Data Set (Numerical Identifier; Version Number). [Brief description, i.e. Data Set, or Data set and code book]. Publisher or Source. Link or DOI.
Examples:
U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Department of Commerce. (2023). Educational Attainment, American Community Survey, ACS 1-Year Estimates Subject Tables (Table S1501). [Data Set]. https://data.census.gov/table/ACSST1Y2023.S1501?q=Educational%20Attainment
O’Donohue, W. (2017). Content analysis of undergraduate psychology textbooks (ICPSR 36966; Version V1) [Data set]. ICPSR. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR36966.v1
Other notes: