For other researchers to correctly interpret and effectively reuse your data you will need to provide information about it - this is called metadata. Ideally the metadata will be recorded in a standardised format (e.g. Dublin Core) that is easily understood and communicated. However, it may sometimes be necessary to create a 'readme' file to provide this information to potential users of your research data. Below is some advice on writing a good quality 'readme' file.
Best Practices
- Create one 'readme' file for each data file, whenever possible. Name the 'readme' so that it is easily associated with the data file(s) it describes.
- Write your 'readme' document as a plain text file.
- Format multiple 'readme' files identically.
- Use standardized date formats (e.g. YYYYMMDD or YYYYMMDDThhmmss).
- Follow the scientific conventions for your discipline for taxonomic, geospatial and geologic names and keywords.
Recommended minimum content
General information
- Provide a title for the dataset
- Name/institution/address/email information for Principal investigator (or person responsible for collecting the data)
- Date of data collection (can be a single date, or a range)
- Information about geographic location of data collection
Data and file overview
- For each filename, a short description of what data it contains
- Date that the file was created
Sharing and access information
- Licenses or restrictions placed on the data
Methodological information
- Description of methods for data collection or generation
- Description of methods used for data processing (describe how the data were generated from the raw or collected data)
Data-specific information (repeat this section as needed for each dataset, or file, as appropriate)
- Variable list, including full names and definitions (spell out abbreviated words) of column headings for tabular data
- Units of measurement
- Definitions for codes or symbols used to record missing data