Manage data during research

File naming, organization, and versioning

Consider creating a readme.txt file, in your project's main file folder, that gives an explanation of the directory structure and describes the contents of the major folders. See Massachusetts Institute of Technology's README file & folder schema example.

Best practices

• The main folder should have an informative name. For example: title, unique identifier, and date (year).
• Subfolders should be divided by common theme. For example:
  • research activity (interviews, surveys, experiment)
  • parameter assessed
  • data type (images, text, databases)
  • kind of material (publications, deliverables, documentation)
• Consider restricting the level of folders to three or four deep and not to have more than ten items per folder.

Consider creating a readme.txt file, in your project's main file folder, that explains your file naming convention, as well as any abbreviations or codes.

Best practices

Common elements in folder or file names:

• Project or experiment name or acronym
• File creator's name/initials
• Date
• Version number
• Data characteristics, for example:
  • Location/spatial coordinates
  • Type of data (e.g., Survey)
  • Conditions (e.g., Lab instrument, Solvent, Temperature, etc.)

Rules of thumb for file names:

• Keep file names as short as possible while including all necessary information.
• Do not use spaces, full stops (.), or special characters (e.g., &, *%#;()!@$^~'{}[]?<>)
• Use hyphens (-), underscores ( _ ), or camel case (FileName) to separate elements in a file name
• Dates should use consistent formatting (e.g., YYYYMMDD)
• Version numbers should have leading zeros to allow for multi-digit versions (e.g., v_05, v_023)

Source: Organising (UK Data Service).

File renaming

Software is available for batch renaming multiple files using an automated process. Example software include Renamer (Mac) or Bulk Rename Utility (Windows). 

Further reading: Batch renaming (Wikipedia).

Two separate tables should be used for tracking file versions: 1) document control table, and 2) version history. The document control table should include the document's title, file name, description, creator name, maintainer name, date created, and date modified. The version history table should list the version numbers, the person(s) responsible for the version, explanatory notes, and a last amended date. 

Best practices

• Keep a copy of the original data, and never edit it.
• Add version information in file naming convention (e.g., creation or modification date, or version number)
• Use tools or software to help track file versioning. This could include:
  • Tools that automatically assign version numbers (e.g., Electronic Lab Notebooks)
  • File sharing services (e.g., Dropbox, Google Docs)
  • Version control software (e.g., Subversion, Git)
  • Version control tables (see below)

Further reading: Versioning (UK Data Service).

Examples of version control tables

Source: Versioning (UK Data Service).