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Research Data: Finding, Managing, Sharing

Provides information about all aspects of data management and stewardship including finding, planning, organizing, documenting, sharing, and preserving your research data.

File naming and Folder Organization Best Practices

Planning how you will construct your folder organization and file names before you begin collecting and saving data will ultimately save time later in the research process. Simplicity and consistency are key characteristics of effective folder and file management.  Good folder organization and file names will provide easy findability and identification of contents. Below are some links to best practices for creating folders and naming files.

 

Versioning

Versioning is the practice of assigning version names or numbers to progressive states of data and datasets.  Versioning ensures standardization and allows for repeatability in research, as well as comparison over time.  Recording versions is an important piece of your metadata.  DropBox will aid you in keeping track of multiple versions of files.  There are also software solutions available for more complex versioning needs (e.g. GitHub).

Storage

UM Information and Technology Services has guides to storage options on campus: ITS Storage Services.

A good person to talk to about data storage is your departmental IT specialist.

Best practices for data storage often advise storing data in several places; possible places might include an external hard drive, portable media, the cloud, a trusted repository, etc.

Bulk Renaming of Files

Last Updated: Nov 18, 2024 1:29 PM