Documenting your data
Why document my data?
Documenting and describing your data makes it easier for you and others to reuse data at a later date. Imagine that you were taking over a project in the middle of a grant, but could not contact the principle researcher. What information would you need to continue the project? Here are some examples:
- File handling (naming convention, folder structure)
- Processing steps (how to get from point A to B)
- Protocols (what decisions were made and why)
- Field abbreviations/name glossary (what does ABC3130 stand for)
This is what is called metadata, which is "data about data" or the who, what, when, where, why, how of your research.
- Who created the data
- What the data file contains
- When the data were generated
- Where the data were generated
- Why the data were generated
- How the data were generated
