Organizing Research Data: A Folder Structure Guide for PhD Students

The organization of research data is an important aspect for the reproducibility and traceability of research results. A well-structured and documented research data management (RDM) is crucial for adhering to the FAIR principles and is an essential part of good research practice throughout the entire data lifecycle. Good RDM leads to well-organized, annotated, and clear data, reduces the risk of data loss, and saves time in research practice. An appropriate folder structure is essential for
effective data organization, but this already requires years of professional experience, which is particularly lacking for early-career researchers. Existing solutions, such as templates for individual projects, often do not cover the extensive organizational requirements of a doctoral project and usually provide little guidance or background knowledge. To address this challenge, we present a comprehensive folder structure template specifically for doctoral candidates in the life and natural
sciences. Our template includes folders for the most important use cases in research practice: results, figures, manuscripts, code, and administrative documents. It offers a practical solution for digital data organization and contains recommendations and further information for best RDM practices, as well as guidelines for capturing standardized metadata. By applying this folder structure at the beginning of a project, researchers can organize and manage their data more efficiently, leading to more FAIR data and higher research quality. Our template aims to help early-career researchers develop good practices in research data management and preserve their research data in the long term by addressing the challenges of data organization for doctoral projects.

The poster was conducted and presented at the "First International Symposium & Autumn School on “Chemistry, Physics & Devices of Organic 2D Crystals" in Dresden, 06-10. Oct. 2025 and additionally presented at the "6. SaxFDM-Tagung" in Dresden, 20. – 21. Nov. 2025.

Link to "PhD Project Folder Template for the Life Sciences": https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15835125 and https://github.com/RDMJeanne/FolderStructure

Link to README.md: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14848834
Link to Markdown-to-JSON-Parser: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14942696 and https://github.com/Bondoki/ParsingMetadataMD2JSON