Structuring Data

• Whether your data is digital or held in a physical copy you will sooner or later need to work out a way to organise it so that you can find items quickly, efficiently, and usefully. In this section we will look into creating a structure for a folder system, deal with issues of version control, and consider differences of working as an individual or as part of a collaborative endeavour. 

  We shall begin by looking at physical materials. Read through the handbook and think about how you will handle print outs, photocopies, and physical objects that you might accumulate during the research process.

• Physical organisation systems Book
• Most data these days will be digital by nature. Certainly a large proportion of data, drafts, and bibliographical information will be held on an electronic device of one kind or another. Read through the second handbook suggesting some ways of organising files on a computer system.

• Digital Folder systems Book
• DMP

  After completing this section you should try and complete as much of section 5: storage and backup of Data as you can. You may wish to consider folder management as part of your strategy for sections 2.9, 4.3, 4.4, 4.5, 6.2, 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5. 

• Section Files Folder