Structuring Research Materials
Last updated on 2025-03-28 | Edit this page
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?