By Help Your Future Self, we mean Write It Down: document, document, document! Your documentation provides crucial context for your data. So whatever your preferred method of record keeping is, today is the day to make it a little bit better! Some general strategies that work for any format:
- Be clear, concise, and consistent.
- Write legibly.
- Number pages.
- Date everything, use a standard format (ex: YYYYMMDD).
- Try to organize information in a logical and consistent way.
- Define your assumptions, parameters, codes, abbreviations, etc.
- If documentation is scattered across more than one place or file (e.g., protocols & lab notebook), remind yourself of the file names and where those files are located.
- Review your notes regularly and keep them current.
- Keep all of your notes for at least 7 years after the project is completed.
- Writing illegibly.
- Using abbreviations or codes that aren’t defined.
- Using abbreviations or codes inconsistently.
- Forgetting to jot down what was unusual or what went wrong. This is usually the most important type of information when it comes to analysis and write up!
- Readme files are a simple and low-tech way to start documenting your data better. Check out the sample readme.txt (filename = readme_template.txt) from IU.
- Cornell University RDMSG also has a guide with tips for using read me files
- Check out Kristin Briney’s post on taking better notes
- Cornell University RDMSG has some tips for writing metadata
- Data dictionaries are an easy way to document spreadsheets. Check out some examples on the Pinterest resource board.
Take a few minutes to think about how you document your data. What’s missing? Where are the gaps? Can you set up some processes to make this part of the work easier?
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