Create documentation about your research data

Documentation provides context to understand and use your data. Imagine you want to restart a research project after several months (or years!) have lapsed. Having robust documentation will make it easier for you to do so. Without it, you may not be able to re-use or replicate your previous data.

Documentation can take many forms including:

• Methods sections
• ReadMe.txt files
• Research notes
• Code books
• Lab notebooks

Best Practices for creating documentation: 

• Create a procedure for creating documentation for your data. The type of documentation needed and how to capture it is dependent on the research project.
  
  
• Ideally, you should plan your documentation procedures before starting your research project.
  
  
• Documentation should provide as much context as possible. In general, record the who, what, when, where, why and how relating to the data. Don't forget to document abbreviations, important names/locations, data processing steps, etc.
  
  
• Your documentation should be safely stored along with your research data. See Storing & backing up your data for more info.
  
  
• Most importantly: be consistent with your documentation practices. Consistency is key to ensuring that your data is usable in the future!