Data Week: Documenting, describing, defining

Insights from National Love Your Data Week

Courtney (Vidacovich) Donovan, PhD | Senior Research Instructor
Faculty Research Center Director

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Message of the day: Good documentation tells people they can trust your data by enabling validation, replication, and reuse.

Why does having good documentation matter?

  • It contributes to the quality and usefulness of your research and the data itself – for yourself, colleagues, students, and others.
  • It makes the analysis and write-up stages of your project easier and less stressful.
  • It helps to build trust in your research by allowing others to validate your data or methods.
  • It can make it easier for others to replicate or reuse your data. When they cite the data, you get credit! Include these citations in your CV, funding proposal, or promotion and tenure package.
  • It improves the integrity of the scholarly record by providing a more complete picture of how your research was conducted. This promotes public trust and support of research!

How the Research Center can help!

  • Ask us about ways to document as you go.
  • Consider coming by for a methods consult beforehand!
  • Click HERE to see how else we can help you with research!

**Adapted from https://loveyourdata.wordpress.com/