Document your data
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1. Document the project and data
Data documentation is all the information required to enable other researchers and third parties to use your data adequately, without it being misinterpreted or misused. Start documenting at the very beginning of the project.
Consider keeping track and documenting the following research steps:
- Research design
- Context and methods of data collection
- Data quality procedures
- Data analysis procedures
- Access conditions
At the data level, consider documenting the variables names, labels and units of measurement, their type, and formats.
Documentation can be captured in various ways: in a research paper, project report, lab notebook, codebook, separate ‘readme’ file, database, annotated computer script and/or the data files themselves etc.
Specific information on documenting data via codebook can be found on the "codebook" section.
2. Add metadata
Metadata is often defined as "data about data". It is used to describe data, in particular using standardised formats.
Metadata is used by repositories and browsers to catalogue data and facilitate findings and re-use. In this way, metadata helps to make data "FAIR".
Specific information on metadata is provided here.