Finding Data/Data Support

Follow best practices while collecting or generating your data and you will save time when you are asked to validate your work or share your data. 

Think in advance about:

• Documentation
• Loss Prevention
• Security
• Storage

Plan for reusing your data by using best practices for:

Loss Prevention

Backup your data on local and remote external servers and have a contingency plan for restoring lost data 

Formatting for long term preservation

When naming files in your data set, be consistent and descriptive.

To prevent data from being lost to incompatibility, store it as formats and on hardware that are open standard, not proprietary.

Data Documentation:

• Use metadata to record details about a study such as
  • its context
  • the dates of data collections
  • data collection methods, etc.

Best Practices Primer from DataONE for more details