{"id":54,"date":"2014-05-29T19:45:03","date_gmt":"2014-05-29T19:45:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/libraries-dev.mit.edu\/data-management\/?page_id=54"},"modified":"2026-01-16T14:56:19","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T14:56:19","slug":"organize","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/data-management\/store\/organize\/","title":{"rendered":"Organize your files"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>File naming and folder hierarchy<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Keeping track of research data and documentation is critical. Strategies include:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Spend time planning out both folder hierarchy and file naming conventions in the beginning of a project. Consider how you or others will look for and access files at a later date. Do you think about them by type, location, study or something else?<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Establish a folder hierarchy that aligns with the project. Example: [Project] \/ [Experiment] \/ [Instrument or Type of file]<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Consider all aspects of the project and develop a file naming scheme that includes important metadata. Example: [Date]_[Run]_[SampleType]<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Consider sorting when deciding what element of the file name will go first. File names starting with YYYYMM will sort differently than files starting with the MMDDYYYY format.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Provide a method for easy adoption. Consider a shared dropbox with the folder hierarchy in place and a readme file in onboarding documentation for new contributors.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\">Check for established file naming conventions. Many disciplines have recommendations, for example: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.arm.gov\/guidance\/datause\/formatting-and-file-naming-protocols\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">DOE\u2019s Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) program<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Need more help?<\/h2>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Consider these resources:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s3\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dropbox.com\/scl\/fi\/1zd63iszw33rh4hjcu1dl\/Worksheet_fileOrg.docx?rlkey=ie9ju5lcg0awfdvfw6u83xtrs&amp;st=esi6jltl&amp;dl=0\"><span class=\"s4\">Naming and organizing your files and folders worksheet<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Documenting your naming and organization schema, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dropbox.com\/sh\/ys6f4wi5vtcxpg4\/AAA1fWWejy5-Ayp4-yXbf1tQa?dl=0\"><span class=\"s6\">sample and template READMEs<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s3\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dropbox.com\/s\/ps7mddzafkjap0d\/Handout_fileNaming.pdf?dl=0\"><span class=\"s4\">File naming best practices handout (pdf)<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s3\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dropbox.com\/s\/pur3houuow3csk9\/Handout_BatchRenaming.pdf?dl=0\"><span class=\"s4\">Batch file renaming tools handout (pdf)<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s3\"><span class=\"s4\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dropbox.com\/s\/s27wkfoszsqd5pp\/Handout_versionControl.pdf?dl=0\">Version control tools &amp; techniques handout (pdf)<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/libguides.mit.edu\/metadataTools\">Tagging and Finding Your Files (web page)<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s2\">Download the whole <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dropbox.com\/scl\/fo\/s4fakte1sojxqdtblmv40\/ALeirBWhLX4usVINhXJKNHk?rlkey=zia1wlngyqx2nsapcsftdn2xe&amp;st=jbyqajl0&amp;dl=0\"><span class=\"s7\">file organization package<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\"><span class=\"s2\">Also see our <a href=\"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/data-management\/services\/workshops\/\"><span class=\"s7\">materials from our workshop on file organization<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>File naming and folder hierarchy Keeping track of research data and documentation is critical. Strategies include: Spend time planning out both folder hierarchy and file naming conventions in the beginning of a project. Consider how you or others will look for and access files at a later date. Do you think about them by type, location, study or something else? Establish a folder hierarchy that aligns with the project. Example: [Project] \/ [Experiment] \/ [Instrument or Type of file] Consider all aspects of the project and develop a file naming scheme that includes important metadata. Example: [Date]_[Run]_[SampleType] Consider sorting when [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":16,"menu_order":6,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"templates\/page.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-54","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/data-management\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/54","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/data-management\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/data-management\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/data-management\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/data-management\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/data-management\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/54\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1051,"href":"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/data-management\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/54\/revisions\/1051"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/data-management\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/16"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/data-management\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}