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      File Organisation

      The following suggestions will help you to organise your data:

      Use folders - When organising your data, consider using folders to group related files in one location. The number of files or folders per group may vary depending on the nature of your data.

      Apply meaningful folder names - Ensure that you use clear and appropriate folder names that relate to the area of work or study rather than the individual responsible. This will avoid confusion if group members leave and is easier for new researchers to use.

      Structure folders hierarchically - Design a folder structure with broad topics at the highest level and specific folders within these. However, try to avoid nesting folders too deeply as this may cause problems with path lengths.

      Separate current and completed work - you may find it helpful to move temporary drafts or completed work into separate folders. This will also make it easier to review what you need to keep as you go along.

      Control access at the highest level - it is easier to set access permissions near the top of your folder structure rather than trying to control permissions for deeply nested folders. This is particularly important if you need to grant someone access to only a subset of your data, in which case you could move these data to a new, higher-level folder.

      1. Naming files and folders
      2. Version control
      3. More information

      • Naming files and folders

        Naming conventions are rules that allow electronic and physical records to be named in a consistent and logical way.

        Use of consistent and meaningful names will enable you to identify and distinguish between similar records, making data retrieval easier.

        If you create large numbers of data files that would be difficult to name individually, apply your naming convention at the folder level instead.

        When you agree your naming convention, consider the following suggestions:

        • Keep names short but meaningful - if you use abbreviations, keep a record of what these are with the data, so that others can understand and use them
        • Include dates in YYYY-MM-DD format, according to the international ISO 8601 standard. This allows files to be sorted into chronological order and avoids confusion when national conventions vary.
        • Try to avoid using spaces - use punctuation such as hyphens or underscores to separate words, particularly for files that will be available online
        • Avoid using dots and special characters such as \ / : * ? " < > | as these may be reserved for the operating system.
        • Capture relevant information in file names rather than relying on basic file properties such as date of creation. This will allow processed data relating to a single experiment or study to be grouped together
        • If you are repeatedly capturing the same information in a file name, consider grouping the files in a folder named with that information
        • When personal names are used in file or folder names, use their family name followed by initials
        • Consider how different versions of a file will be identified

        Examples

        Files in a folder are usually shown sorted by name. You can take advantage of this to have your files appear in a consistent order.

        Filenames starting with special characters such as @ will appear first, followed by numbers, then the letters A to Z

        For example, you might use this to arrange your files as follows:

        2012-03-07_Subject-A_Audio.mp3

        2012-03-07_Subject-A_Transcript-raw.docx

        2012-03-07_Subject-A_Transcript-anonymised.docx

        2012-04-22_Subject-B_Audio.mp3

        2012-04-22_Subject-B_Transcript-raw.docx

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      • Version control

        As you work with your data it is important to distinguish between different versions or drafts of your files. Version control can help you to easily identify the current version of your data so that you avoid working on older or outdated copies. If you are working with others it can also help to link versions of the data to the time and author of the change.

        There are a number of ways that different versions of data can be managed:

        File naming - a simple method of version control is to create a duplicate copy and then update version information to create a unique file or folder name.

        • Successive versions can be numbered sequentially, with whole numbers used for major revisions and point changes indicating minor edits. e.g. 1-0, 1-1, 1-2, 2-0, 2-1.
        • If you are working as part of a group it may help to include the initials of the person who made the change e.g. v1-0jm, v1-1ke, v2-0gb.

        Version control tables - these are included within documents and can capture more information than using file naming conventions. Version control tables typically include the new version number, date of the change, person who made the change and the nature or purpose of the change. 

        Version control systems - there are many automated systems available that can store a repository of files and monitor access to them, logging who made what change and when. Version control systems are particularly useful for collaborative development of code or software. GitHub is a useful place to share, manage and review code.

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      • More information

        Please see below a number of useful pages on our Intranet to help you further. Please note, you will need to log in to access the Intranet.

        Further guidance on organising data:

        We acknowledge the work of the UK Data Service, the University of Glasgow, the University of Leicester, the University of Southampton and the University of Bath in the development of this guidance.

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