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Research Data Management: File Organization

A summary of services available for research data management at the University of Lethbridge.

Credit for this file organizing advice comes from Simmons University Library. Gratefully reused with permission.

Why?

Organizing and naming your files effectively will make a significant impact on your ability to locate them and understand what they contain. 

When it comes to file naming: be descriptive and consistent.

When it comes to file organization: develop conventions, record the conventions, and stick to those conventions.

File Naming

When constructing a file name, consider using one or more of the following:

  • Project or experiment name or acronym
  • Location/spatial coordinates
  • Researcher name/initials
  • Date or date range of experiment
  • Type of data
  • Conditions
  • Version number of file

Version Control

Version control is the process of managing changes to files.

Manual version control can be as simple as adding a version number or a date (using YYYYMMDD format) to the end of the file name.

Examples: ASIST_abstract_v3.docx or ASIST_abstract_20180522.docx.

You can also use version control software or tools such as Github.

For more depth, see:

Version Control Brief, a short guide which goes over both manual and tool-based options.

Version Control & Authenticity, which focuses on manual options, produced by the UK Data Archive.

Additional File Naming Tips

  • Develop a documented and standardized format with your co-researchers.
  • Use 25 or fewer characters if possible.
  • Avoid using special characters, such as @, #, &.
    • See this page for more depth on characters to avoid.
  • Do not use spaces; instead use underscores or camel case.
    • Examples: NYC_climate_data.csv or NYCclimateData.csv
  • Do not use periods, except before the file extension.
    • Example: 201805_survey_results.tsv, rather than 201805.survey.results.tsv
  • When including the date, follow the ISO 8601 format: YYYYMMDD

File Organization Resources

File Renaming Tools

Guidelines

Worksheets

File Shortcuts / Aliases

Say you have a folder-based organization structure, and you have a file which you want to appear in multiple folders. What's the best way to approach this?

Simply copying the file will open you up to issues of version control (did I update both files?), as well as taking up valuable space.

Instead, you should create a file shortcut (in Windows) or a file alias (in Mac) in the additional folder(s) where you would like the file to be located. When you click on the file shortcut/alias, it will pull the file from its true location and open it.

To create a file alias (Mac)

To create a file shortcut (Windows)