Netscher, Sebastian

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Data Handling: Documentation, Organization and StorageThis work is licensed under Creative Commons Namensnennung 4.0 International Lizenz.Sebastian NetscherCESSDA Training at the Data Archive for the Social SciencesGESIS - Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences@CESSDA_DataData DocumentationResearchStudy planningData collectionData analysisArchiving & registeringWhy Data Documentation?What do thecodes mean?What‘s the study about, by whom was it conducted, etc.?Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (CSES), www.cses.org.keep your data understandableLevels of Data Documentation• Study level– study description– study design– data processing• Variable level– questionnaire– variables and codesImage by A. Herrema & H. Bouwteam (CC-by)Structured versus Unstructured MetadataUnstructured documentation− technical reports etc.− questionnaire, show cards,interviewer instructions etc.− codebook etc.Standardized forms for standardized information− coding schemas, e.g. ISCO, ISCED etc.− international metadata standards, e.g. DDI• International standard for the description of data – DDI-Codebook (DDI2)⇒ based on the codebook– DDI-Lifecycle (DDI3)⇒ based on the (DDI) data lifecycleThe Data Documentation Initiative (DDI)Source: http://www.ddialliance.org/Persistent Identifiers (PIDs)• Persistent identifiers – provide permanency – assure unique retrieval of data– assign citation for reuse• The DOI system – controlled by IDF(International DOI Foundation) – DOI Resolver, e.g. http://www.doi.org/index.htmlda|ra Schema: Main CategoriesGeneral Resource TypeTitle Other TitlesCollective Title CreatorURL DOI ProposalVersion Language Publication Date Alternative Identifier Classification Internal Keywords (controlled) Keywords (free)Description Geographic CoverageSampled UniverseSampling Temporal CoverageTime Dimension ContributorCollection Mode (controlled) Collection Mode (free) DatasetNotesAvailability (controlled)Availability (free)RightsRelationPublicationsPublication PlaceSource: http://www.da-ra.de/fileadmin/media/da-ra.de/PDFs/MDS_Table_3_1_201503_en.pdfOrganizing Folders and FilesResearchStudy planningData collectionData analysisArchiving & registering• Systematically managing folders – saves time and effort– simplifies the use (collaborative projects)– protects your folders and files from accidental clean-up• Hierarchical structure of folders – structure by topic, data type etc.• Develop standards early in the project⇒ use these standards consistently within a projectStructuring Folders• File names – can contain various information, e.g. title of project, editor‘s name, date of creation, version etc. – neither include punctuation characters or blanks nor be too long• File versioning– as a part of the file names, e.g. including the date or numbering the files– included in the header of the file– in a separate log-file File Names and Versions(Recommended) File FormatsType of data Recommended formats Acceptable formatsTabular data with extensive metadataSPSS portable format (.por)delimited text and command ('setup') file (SPSS, Stata, SAS, etc.)SPSS (.sav); Stata (.dta); MS Access (.mdb/.accdb)Tabular data with minimal metadatacomma-separated (.csv); tab-delimited file (.tab)MS Excel (.xls/.xlsx); MS Access (.mdb/.accdb), dBase (.dbf); OpenDocument (.ods)Textual data Rich Text Format (.rtf); plain text, ASCII (.txt)HTML(.html); MS Word (.doc/.docx); software-specific formats, e.g. NUD*IST orNVivoImage data TIFF 6.0 uncompressed (.tif) JPEG (.jpeg, .jpg); RAW image format (.raw), Photoshop (.psd); PDF/A or PDF (.pdf)Audio data Free Lossless Audio Codec (.flac) MPEG-1 (.mp3); Waveform (.wav)Video data MPEG-4 (.mp4); JPEG 2000 (.mj2)Documentation and scriptsRich Text Format (.rtf); PDF/A or PDF (.pdf); HTML (.htm); OpenDocument (.odt)plain text (.txt); MS Word (.doc/.docx), MS Excel (.xls/.xlsx); XML (.xml) Source: UK DATA Service, http://ukdataservice.ac.uk/manage-data/format/recommended-formatsData Storage and SecurityResearchStudy planningData collectionData analysisArchiving & registeringBack-Up• Digital media are fallible • A back-up is an additional copy that can be used to restore originals• Backing-up implies having a back-up strategyImage by A. Herrema & H. Bouwteam (CC-by)• A systematic back-up strategy definesa) what ⇒ all, some, just changes …b) where ⇒ external, local, remote copies …c) how often ⇒ at least in triplicatesd) for how long ⇒ how long are things needede) responsibility ⇒ automate the back-up process• Verify and recover your back-ups⇒ never assume, regularly test a restore• Treat back-ups the same as the original filesTowards a Back-up StrategyImage by P. Hochstenbach (CC-by)Data Protection• Protect your data from unauthorized access, use, change, disclosure, destruction etc.• Take care of personal data – data protection legislation (EU Directive 1995/46/EC)– separate personal data from other data• Use passwords and encryption• A strong password has– eight to fifteen characters or even more– a random distribution of characters • Combine… … upper case letters: A - Z… lower case letters: a - z… numerals: 0 - 9… special characters: ! " # $ % & ' ( ) * + , - . / : etc.PasswordsImage: CC-0Encryption• Helps maintain the security of data and documentation– uses an algorithm to transform information– requires a “key” to decrypt• For example, encrypt ZIP files securely using 7ZipFurther Readings• Aryal, M. (ed.) (2012): Speak Safe. Media Workers’ Toolkit for Safer Online and Mobile Practices. https://www.internews.org/sites/default/files/ resources/Internews_SpeakSafeToolkit.pdf• Borgmann, M., Hahn, T., Herfert, M., Kunz, T., Richter, M., Viebeg, U., and Vowé, S. (2012): On the Security of Cloud Storage Services. Frauenhofer Institut, SIT Technical Report. https://www.sit.fraunhofer.de/fileadmin/dokumente/ studien_und_technical_reports/Cloud-Storage-Security_a4.pdf.• Directive 95/46/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council, 24 October 1995. Available at:  http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do? uri=CELEX:31995L0046:EN:NOT• Gregory, A., Heus, P., & Ryssevik, J., 2009, Metadata. Berlin. http://www.ratswd.de/download/workingpapers2009/57_09.pdf.• Miller, K., & Vardigan, M., 2005, How Initiative Benefits the Research Community - the Data Documentation Initiative. In First International Conference on e-Social Science, Manchester, UK, June 2005. http://www.ddialliance.org/sites/default/files/miller.pdf. • National Information Standards Organization, 2004, Understanding Metadata (p. 17). Bethesa, MD: NISO Press. www.niso.org/standards/resources/UnderstandingMetadata.pdf. • Plant, R. R., 2012, How to add metadata to your data so that you and others can make sense of it. Retrieved from http://www.shef.ac.uk/polopoly_fs/1.158828!/file/Metadatav6.pdf. • Starr, J., 2011, DataCite Metadata Schema for the Publication and Citation of Research Data (p. 29). doi:10.5438/0005• Vardigan, M., Heus, P., & Thomas, W., 2008, Data Documentation Initiative: Toward a Standard for the Social Sciences. International Journal of Digital Curation, 3(1), 107–113. doi:10.2218/ijdc.v3i1.45. DMP Sections 2 and 3 work in 3 groups,  time: about 30 minutes choose one of the following topicsDMP Sections 2 & 3a) documentation (Section 2), considering …… what information is needed… how you (will) capture this informationb) data storage and back-ups (Section 3.1), developing a back-up strategy, i.e. …… what, where and how often / long it is backed-up… how are back-ups verifiedc) managing folders and files (Section 3.3), considering …… how you will organize your folders… how you will name and version your filesDMP Section 2: Documentation• study description– study‘s aim, primary researcher (and funders), population and sampling procedures, method of data collection, data cleaning and anonymization etc.⇒ technical and methodological report• variable description– questionnaire: original question wording and provided answer categories, explanations, interviewer instructions; – variables: labels and meanings of variables and codes, variable notes, scales etc.⇒ codebook, questionnaire and labels in the datasetDMP Section 3.1: Back-up• developing a back-up strategy⇒ defining clear and consistent guidelines– what: all, something, only changed files– where: at least in triplicates and different locations– how long are different files (and versions) needednever destruct or overwrite original data – who: name researcher(s) and assign responsibilities⇒ verify back-ups frequently (e.g. once a week), e.g. restoring the files (name researcher(s) and responsibilities)DMP Sections 3.3: Organizing …• developing guidelines to organize …… folders– define a consistent structure of folders⇒ e.g. by topic… and files, i.e. define a consistent strategy – to name files⇒ e.g. [type_name_version]– to version files⇒ e.g. by the date and editor’s acronyms– data_RDMData_20150822sn

Data Handling: Documentation, Organization and Storage

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Data Handling: Documentation, Organization and Storage

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