With ongoing changes to federal requirements for data management and sharing, people at all stages of familiarity are needing to quickly refresh or learn new skills. We know that figuring out how to improve your research data management and sharing practices can feel overwhelming, especially if this topic is new to you. So we’ve pulled together some resources that provide structure and guidance for getting started. Check out the resources below for help at every stage of your project!
Many of these resources were found via the Data Management Training Clearinghouse – be sure to check out all the useful trainings available!
Planning
Felt like you needed more structured questions to help you think through a data management plan for your lab or project? Purdue has a structured questionnaire to help you do just that!
Organizing Files
Ever wanted to improve your file naming and organization practices but didn’t know where to start?
- CalTech Library has a great file naming convention worksheet
- MIT Libraries has a helpful worksheet that covers both folder structures and file naming
Documenting/Describing Data
- You can find a quick introduction to different types of metadata on our RDS Metadata page
- Learn how to write a data dictionary
Data Sharing
Are you not sure how to curate and prepare your data before sharing it?
- The Data Curation Network has primers on curating many different common formats here!
- Explore these short guides on making research FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable) – organized by discipline!