Structuring and organizing project data- File naming conventions

The workshop covered naming conventions for folders and files, file versioning, and data structuring for storage and publishing. It's not surprising that some projects still have no file and folder naming conventions. It is critical that each project team agrees on how to name their files and folders. However, the difficulty arises from the fact that scientists come from a variety of backgrounds, and everyone believes that their file naming style is the best and that no one should change it.

What we believe is best is for project leaders to develop file and folder naming rules with team members and explain the benefits of such naming rules to the team in order to pique team members' interest in adhering to the rules.

The advantages of following file naming conventions are twofold: To begin with, your files will be machine and human readable, and file search and sorting will be very simple. Setting or adhering to file naming conventions will allow you to be well organised as an individual. You will be able to easily identify files and group files with similar contents together. Last but not least, other team members will understand what your research is about, which leads to greater appreciation.