Pre-Recorded Workshops
Hands On Data Management
Recorded 2020-07-06 as part of the Digital Scholarship Bootcamp series in the 2020 Summer Workshop Series at Penn Libraries.
Planning for Your Data: Organization and Storage Tips
Recording of the New Student Orientation workshop "Planning for Your Data: Organization and Storage Tips" offered 2020-08-26.
Funding Agency Public Access Plans (CENDI.gov)
Funding Agency Public Access Plans (SPARC)
Links to Domain Repositories
Links to School-specific guidance on data management
Additional Learning Opportunities
If you're unavailable during office hours, or would prefer to talk via email, email Margaret Janz or contact Penn Libraries using the button above.
You can also search Research DataQ for answers
The best practice is to have a plan. Ask us for more information about or beyond any of these tips.
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Writing a High Quality Data Management Plan Read your funder requirements carefully and address everything they ask you to. Then follow your plan. |
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Have a consistent system and make sure everyone knows it. Don't use spaces or special characters in file names. |
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Columns are for variables, rows are for records. Label your columns and use consistent terms between records. Don't use color or leave cells blank. |
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Using Codebooks, ReadMe Files, and Data Dictionaries, give at least enough information that future you, a new lab member, or another researcher could make sense of your data. |
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Security & Privacy Password protect and/or encrypt sensitive files. Follow Penn's guidelines for saving sensitive data on PennBox and visit SAS's pages on sensitive data and encryption. |
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Share! And share your documentation so the data is useful. Repositories are the most effective way to share. Find an appropriate repository here or ask us! |
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Follow the 3-2-1 Rule: 3 copies of your data stored on 2 different types of media with 1 copy in an offsite location. (0 of these copies should be on a flash drive; flash drives are easily lost) Want to know more? Watch one of these videos from Explaining Computers or University of Wisconsin Milwaukee's Data Librarian |
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Archiving data for the long haul Use sustainable file formats whenever possible and migrate your data to new media every 3-5 years. |