You may not have known what it was called, but you've already worked with different types of metadata. Your research data will need to be described and documented using metadata so that:
Descriptive metadata describes what things are.
Examples of descriptive metadata:
Administrative metadata describes file formats, licences, copyright information, data preservation and other things related to managing your data. Your Data Management Plan is a document containing the administrative metadata for your research data.
Examples of administrative metadata
Structural metadata describes the relationships between the components of your data or documents. It determines how data is presented and facilitates navigation.
Examples of structural metadata
For more information about metadata in relation to research data, please review ARDC's Metadata Guide.
Metadata standards make it possible for researchers to create uniform descriptions for their data. If all of the researchers in a single area describe their data in exactly same way and exactly the same order, it's easier for everyone to find, use and compare data.
Some standards include:
Biology
Ecology
Geospatial data
Arts
Social Sciences Data
Humanities
General
It’s important to give concise, meaningful names to your files and folders so you can easily identify their content.
File names need to be brief, but still contain all the essential information. It’s a balancing act. Long file names can be problematic for the software you use to open them, because it reads the full file path including the file name, e.g. U:\ResearchTeam\ResearchDataManagement\FileNamingConventions.docx. File names that are short because they contain too little information, e.g. Download.pdf, cause issues for you because the name tells you little or nothing about the contents.
Be consistent in the way that you name files and folder. This makes it easier to name new ones and easier to find your files when you need them.
Here are 5 things to think about when you are naming your files.
Words and spaces
Examples:
Numbers and Dates
Numbers should be at least 2 digits so that files names can be sorted in correct numerical order. That means that the numbers 1 to 9 need to be written as 01 to 09.
Example:
Dates need to be written in Japanese date order, YYYYMMDD, so that files will be grouped first by year, then month, and then be sorted in order of day.
Examples:
If you have only one document for each date, begin with the same word and put the date at the end of the file name.
If you have multiple documents for each date, put the date first so you can group all of the documents for that date.
Version information
Descriptions like Draft, Final, Version05 are best at the end of the file name. That way all versions of the same work will be listed together.
Examples:
Names of people
People: Like authors in references, it’s best to put surname first if you are including a personal name in the file name.
Example:
If you are combining notes for a systematic review, you might put the author names on the end of the file name to distinguish between the original files.
Avoid repeating folder names in file names
The names you give your documents are only part of their idenity. You read the document name, but software that opens the files reads the whole file path including the document name. If this file path is too long, you may not be able to open it. To reduce the length of this file path, it’s best to avoid repeating the folder name as part of the file name.
Example:
If you have a meetings folder, you don’t need to name the files Meetings with my Supervisor, or Project Team Meetings plus the dates. Meetings is already there in the folder name.
You will create a lot of files during your research. Grouping your files in folders will help you to organise your work so you can easily locate the files you need. If you have too many top level folders it will create confusion. Below is a suggested folder structure:
Folder name |
The kinds of information or files it would contain |
Data collection and analysis |
Raw data and data analysis files |
People (or, Partnerships, or People and Partnerships) |
Information relating to supervisors, research partners, industry partners, casual project staff |
Project management |
Your Gantt chart, budget and anything related to purchasing, grants / grant applications and other administrative documentation |
Publications |
The conference papers, journal articles, grey literature, etc. which you have written or co-authored |
Thesis chapters |
The individual chapters and appendices of your thesis |
Other (self-nominated) – 1 |
Name this folder to suit an information storage need that is not met by the other folders, e.g. you might use it for EndNote |
Other (self-nominated) – 2 |
Name this folder to suit an information storage need that is not met by the other folders |
NOTE: If you are using a university laptop, it's recommended that you keep your working EndNote library in Downloads so that it won't be synced to OneDrive. Opening and using your EndNote library in OneDrive can corrupt it.