Data documentation
Ensuring that research data are easy to understand is a crucial part of
sharing and archiving data. Clear descriptions and annotation of what data mean, together with user-friendly accompanying
documentation on methods and context, means that other researchers can understand and interpret data and therefore make
informed secondary use.
Creating good data documentation is easiest when planned from the start of and throughout research, during the data lifecycle.
Advance planning can significantly reduce the time and money needed to prepare documentation.
For data archived at the UK Data Archive, data users are guided in using data by a catalogue record, a user guide
and a data list as the main forms of metadata and data documentation. These are produced by the Archive based on
documentation and metadata provided by researchers depositing data. Documentation is used to create a catalogue record
for each data collection, which serves for resource discovery and as a bibliographic reference of a data collection.
Detailed information on how to decsribe and document data and which documentation to create is available on the UK Data
Archive web pages on data documentation and metadata.
Data documentation can be produced as:
- information embedded within data files, especially variable labels, codes and descriptions
- a project's final report probably contains the majority of contextual and methodological documentation for data
- publications, working papers, lab books
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