LibGuides: Research Data Management: File Names & Organization

File Organization

Coming up with a good file organization system will help you locate your data quickly and easily. It will also help reduce the chance of existing data getting duplicated. For example, researchers on your team won't waste time re-doing an experiment because they can't find the original file.
When creating folder names, use a naming system that provides context for the data. For example, the project name. Scroll down to see file naming conventions.
If your folders contain many files, create subfolders. However, be careful with subfolders. If you have too many it can making finding a file difficult.

Data Management Resources

REDCap offers a free, easy-to-use, and secure method of flexible yet robust data collection.

The following are some best practices and examples for creating file names.

Avoid special characters (!@#$%^&*?), periods (.), hyphens(-), and spaces: not all computer operating systems can handle these special characters in file names, which could corrupt the file and result in data loss.
Underscores (_) and CamelCase are appropriate to use to help differentiate words in a file name.
Use versioning to describe the edited version of the file, rather than putting "edited" or "final" in the file name.
Use the date format YYYYMMDD to ensure that your files can be sorted in chronological order.
Try to create meaningful file names that tell you about the data. You can include project name, experiment name, dates, etc. to help make your files more understandable.

Be consistent. Come up with a file naming convention before you start saving data, and make sure that everyone on your team adheres to it.