University of Edinburgh
MANTRA Research Data Management Training,
‘Research Data Explained’
Unlike other types of information, research data are collected, observed, or created, for the purposes of analysis to produce and validate original research results.”
Why manage data?
The Researcher Perspective
Manage your data for yourself to:
Keep yourself organized
Track your research processes for reproducibility
Better control versions of data
Quality control your data more efficiently
Why manage data?
The Researcher Perspective
Manage your data for yourself to:
Make backups to avoid data loss
Be prepared: Document your data for your own recollection, accountability & re-use (by yourself or others)
Format your data for re-use (by yourself or others)
Prepare it to share it – gain credibility & recognition for your science efforts!
Organizing & Describing
File Naming
File Naming Best Practices
BE CONSISTENT
Have conventions for naming:
Directory structure
Folder names
File names
Always include the same information
(e.g. date and time)
Retain the order of information
(e.g. YYYYMMDD, not MMDDYYY )
File Naming Best Practices
BE DESCRIPTIVE
Try to keep file and folder names under 32 characters
Within reason, Include relevant information such as:
Unique identifier (ie. Project Name or Grant # in folder name)
When using sequential numbering, make sure to use leading zeros to allow for multi-digit versions. For example, a sequence of 1-10 should be numbered 01-10; a sequence of 1-100 should be numbered 001-010-100.
