Collecting and organising data

Good organisation is key to ensuring your data is findable, accessible, and understandable whether it is one month from now or one year from now. Organising your files will enable you to keep track of them as well as reduce errors across versions.

Documenting your project by creating a detailed description and annotation will provide a record of decisions you made and how you carried them out. Good documentation will also provide a context for your data allowing others to understand it and reuse it.

It is good practice to have a plan for how you will organise and document your data before you begin collecting it. If you intend to share your data, it is important to be aware that this needs to be planned for as many aspects such as ethical approval and consent need to be addressed long before the end of your project.

File formats

To ensure your digital data is accessible, it is important to choose a standard, lossless format that supports long-term preservation and usability.
The UK Data Service provides guidance on recommended formats for different types of data.
File names and folder structures

File names should be simple but descriptive so you can easily identify the contents without opening it. Choose name elements that make sense for your project.
Folder structures should be descriptive and consistent so you can locate the appropriate file. Applying a hierarchy is good practice and especially important when managing a large number of files or collaborating with others. Be sure all project partners agree on the structure.
The UK Data Service provides tips on file names and folder structures.
Versioning

Saving copies of your files whenever significant changes are made is useful as a record of your data analysis. It is especially important if you discover a mistake. You will then be able to go back to where the mistake was made without having to start from the beginning. Be sure to always save a master or raw copy of your data first.
The UK Data Service provides tips on versioning.
Documentation and metadata

Documentation occurs throughout your project. It creates a context for your project and your data that will make it understandable and reusable. There are study-level and data-level documentation.
Study-level documentation describes aspects of the project such as aims, type of data collected, methodology, and quality assurance processes.
Data-level documentation describes the individual data files or variables.
Documentation can take the form of lab notebooks, annotation, codebooks, variable descriptions, or README files that can be made available alongside your data.
Metadata is simply ‘data about data’. It is structured, standardised, and machine-readable. Metadata is usually provided in the form of a repository record giving broad contextual information about the data such as project title, creator, and subject keywords.
Survey and interview tools

Manchester Met provides the web-based survey tools MS Forms and JISC online surveys for all students. They are suitable to use with personal data and are compliant with data protection regulations.
Microsoft Teams is the University’s recommended video conferencing platform. More information can be found on the MS Teams intranet support page.
Please note that Zoom is not recommended for calls that involve sensitive information.
See data protection in research for more information on these tools.
For researchers using third-party transcription services, it is important that the service complies with data protection regulations. If you have any questions about suitable services, please contact [email protected].