Preparing Data
It is very likely that there are several steps between the data you collect and the data you ultimately examine, analyze, publish. Properly preparing data involves both ensuring that your data exists in a form ready for examination or analysis and ensuring that you have documented how and why you prepared your data in the manner that you have. This is where you need to think about what you planned and address the reality about what you can or need to do.
Preparing data means cleaning, coding, processing, or otherwise transforming it in some way. While doing this, it is important to document what you’ve done so that your steps can be re-traced – by yourself or by others – in the future. Remember, documentation about your data is part of your data.
Requirements and How to Meet Them
Your research community, institution, or research group (e.g. lab) may have specific standards and requirements about how you should prepare your data and document your activities.
If you are unsure about what procedures apply to your data, check against your data management plan, your research group’s existing protocols and practices, and any requirements set forth by the places you want to use to share or publish your work. For additional assistance, contact the LRDS team at LRDS@chapman.edu.
Things to Think About