Structuring Research Materials

Estimated time: 60 minutes

Overview

Questions

• How can you structure data using a standard folder system for better organisation?
• What are the benefits of using a consistent file naming convention in research data management?
• Why is version control important, and how can it be incorporated into file naming practices?
• In what ways can version control tools like Git and GitHub be useful for managing data?

Objectives

• Organise their research data into a standard folder structure
• Name files with a consistent naming convention
• Understand why version control is important, and how to incorporate this into your naming conventions
• Explain why version control software such as Git/GitHub can be useful for certain types of data.

Organising files into a folder structure

In groups, look through the folder of data that you have been given:

• What problems can you identify with how files are organised?
• How many different datasets can you identify?
• Which files are ‘raw’ vs ‘processed’ data?
• How would you improve the organisation of the files? E.g. how would you split them between different folders?