This information is over 2 years old. Information was current at time of publication.{"id":12491,"date":"2020-01-22T11:59:59","date_gmt":"2020-01-22T15:59:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/info.hsls.pitt.edu\/updatereport\/?p=12491"},"modified":"2020-02-19T11:40:07","modified_gmt":"2020-02-19T15:40:07","slug":"5-simple-ways-to-love-your-data","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/info.hsls.pitt.edu\/updatereport\/5-simple-ways-to-love-your-data\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Simple Ways to Love Your Data"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hsls.pitt.edu\/data-services\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-12508\" src=\"https:\/\/info.hsls.pitt.edu\/updatereport\/files\/2020\/01\/LoveDataWeek-220x200-1.png\" alt=\"Love Data Week. Show your data some love. Let us show you how.\" width=\"183\" height=\"166\" data-emailimage=\"right\" \/><\/a><\/strong>February 10\u201314 is Love Data Week (<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/LoveData20?src=hashtag_click\">#lovedata20<\/a>). To celebrate, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hsls.pitt.edu\/data-services\">HSLS Data Services team<\/a> has 5 simple tips for showing your data love through data management best practices. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hsls.pitt.edu\/data-services\/contact\">Contact us<\/a> with any data related questions.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>1. Organize your data considering the \u201c80\/20 rule.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">Typically, 20% of files are used 80% of the time. Give forethought on how to organize your files. The files you access most routinely should not be buried 10 clicks down in a folder structure. The following examples illustrate two folder structures for the same data.<\/p>\n<table>\n<tbody>\n<tr style=\"vertical-align: top;\">\n<td>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Heart_Regeneration<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Rat1\n<ul>\n<li>Camera_Images<\/li>\n<li>Pressure<\/li>\n<li>Slides\n<ul>\n<li>Epifluorescent<\/li>\n<li>Confocal<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Heart_Regeneration<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Camera_Images\n<ul>\n<li>Rat1<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Pressure\n<ul>\n<li>Rat1<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Slides\n<ul>\n<li>Rat1\n<ul>\n<li>Epifluorescent<\/li>\n<li>Confocal<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>2. Create and consistently use a file naming convention.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">A file naming convention is a framework for naming your files in a way that describes what they contain and how they relate to one another. One best practice for creating a file naming structure includes using the ISO format (shown below) so that there is no ambiguity for dates. For example, 1262011 could be interpreted three ways: 12 June, 2011; December 6, 2011; or January 26, 2011.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">YYYYMMDD or YYYY-MM-DD<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><em>(Attend the <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hsls.pitt.edu\/instruction\/file-naming-best-practices\/2544\"><em>HSLS coffee break<\/em><\/a><em> in March to learn more file naming best practices.)<\/em><\/p>\n<p>3. Document, document, document!<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">Create a README file in the root folder of your dataset. README files are documents saved in plain text (.txt) or markdown (.md) format. Some recommended details to include are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li>contact information for the data creators<\/li>\n<li>date created<\/li>\n<li>licenses or restrictions placed on the data<\/li>\n<li>data dictionary<\/li>\n<li>description of methodology (with links or references to publications or other documentation containing experimental design or protocols used)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>4. Save your files in a non-proprietary (open) format when possible.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">The format in which your files are saved influences the ability for them to be opened in the future. Non-proprietary, or open, formats (i.e. .csv) are more inter-operable and allow for long-term preservation and potential reuse. If your data cannot be saved in an open format: include the required software name, version, and parent company in your README file documentation.<\/p>\n<p>5. Back up your data using the \u201crule of 3.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">Back-ups can protect against accidental or malicious data loss. The \u201crule of 3\u201d is usually suggested for backing up your data:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li>Two onsite copies; but physically separate (i.e. NOT an external hard drive sitting on top of your desktop computer) AND<\/li>\n<li>One offsite copy (i.e. remote server or cloud)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>~Melissa Ratajeski<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>February 10\u201314 is Love Data Week (#lovedata20). To celebrate, the HSLS Data Services team has 5 simple tips for showing your data love through data management best practices. Contact us with any data related questions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"issue-archives","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[146],"tags":[80,-1],"class_list":["post-12491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-february-2020","tag-data-management","avhec_catgroup-issue-archives"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/info.hsls.pitt.edu\/updatereport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/info.hsls.pitt.edu\/updatereport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/info.hsls.pitt.edu\/updatereport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/info.hsls.pitt.edu\/updatereport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/info.hsls.pitt.edu\/updatereport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12491"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"https:\/\/info.hsls.pitt.edu\/updatereport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12491\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12561,"href":"https:\/\/info.hsls.pitt.edu\/updatereport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12491\/revisions\/12561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/info.hsls.pitt.edu\/updatereport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/info.hsls.pitt.edu\/updatereport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/info.hsls.pitt.edu\/updatereport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}