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This presentation provides a few simple strategies to improve your file organization and file naming, which will help you manage your research data better
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Organizing Your Data
Kristin Briney, PhDData Services Librarian
justgrimes, https://www.flickr.com/photos/notbrucelee/8016192302 (CC BY-SA)
http://retractionwatch.com/2014/01/07/doing-the-right-thing-authors-retract-brain-paper-with-systematic-human-error-in-coding/
FILE ORGANIZATION & NAMING
Dan Zen, http://www.flickr.com/photos/danzen/5551831155/ (CC BY)
File Organization
• What?– Keeping your files in order
File Organization
• Why?– Easier to find and use data– Tell, at a glance, what is done and what you have
yet to do– Can still find and use files in the future
File Organization
• When?– Always!– Get in the habit of putting files in the right place
File Organization
• How?– Any system is better than none– Make your system logical for your data• 80/20 Rule
– Possibilities• By project• By analysis type• By date• …
Example
• Thesis– By chapter• By file type (draft, figure, table, etc.)
• Data– By researcher• By analysis type
– By date
File Organization
• How?– Don’t forget to write your system down!• Front of your research notebook• In a README.txt document with your digital files• On a print out by your computer
http://retractionwatch.com/2014/01/07/doing-the-right-thing-authors-retract-brain-paper-with-systematic-human-error-in-coding/
File Naming Conventions
• What?– Consistent naming for files– Also useful for physical samples
File Naming Conventions
• Why?– Make it easier to find files– Avoid duplicates– Make it easier to wrap up a project because you
know which files belong to it
File Naming Conventions
• When?– For a group of related files (3 to 1000+)– May need different conventions for different
groups
File Naming Conventions
• How?– Pick what is most important for your name• Date• Site• Analysis• Sample• Short description
File Naming Conventions
• How?– Files should be named consistently– Files names should be descriptive but short (<25
characters)– Use underscores instead of spaces– Avoid these characters: “ / \ : * ? ‘ < > [ ] & $– Use the dating convention: YYYY-MM-DD
Example
• YYYYMMDD_site_sampleNum– 20140422_PikeLake_03– 20140424_EastLake_12
• AuthorLastName-Year-Title– Smith-2010-ImpactOfStressOnSeaMonkeys– Hailey-1999-VeryImportantDNAStudy
WHAT TO DO FROM HERE
Chris Hoving, https://www.flickr.com/photos/pcrucifer/2433274595 (CC BY-ND)
Data Services
• uwm.edu/libraries/dataservices
• Data Services Librarian– Kristin Briney
Thank You!
• This presentation available under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license