Data Management: Organization

Organization helps you find and sort through your data and makes it easier to use your data in the future.

The most important thing for organization is to have a system and use it consistently. Here are several options for organization:

• By project
• By analysis type
• By date
• By researcher
• By thesis chapter
• By site or data source

You can also use these systems in combination.

Basically, figure out a system that works for your data (does not have to be listed here) and stick to it.

Examples:

Thesis data:
    By chapter
        By file type (draft, figure, table, etc.)

A PI's collection of grad student data:
    By researcher
        By project
            By date

Consistent file naming means you can tell at a glance what a file contains. This is useful for searching through content, for organizing data, and for collaborations/your own reuse.

Use consistent naming for groups of related files. Pick 2-3 things that will help you distinguish a file's contents, such as:

• Date
• Site
• Analysis
• Sample
• Short description

Combine into a pattern for naming your files. Follow these other rules:

• 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

Examples:

YYYYMMDD_site_sampleNum
    "20140422_PikeLake_03", "20140424_EastLake_12", etc.

AuthorLastName-Year-Title
    "Smith-2010-ImpactOfStressOnSeaMonkeys", "Hailey-1999-VeryImportantDNAStudy", etc.