{"id":522,"date":"2025-07-28T13:54:14","date_gmt":"2025-07-28T12:54:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bgs.ac.uk\/ngdc\/?page_id=522"},"modified":"2025-07-28T13:54:15","modified_gmt":"2025-07-28T12:54:15","slug":"good-data-guidelines","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.bgs.ac.uk\/ngdc\/support-and-guidance\/good-data-guidelines\/","title":{"rendered":"Good data guidelines"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t\t<section class=\"hero-section hero-section-with-social\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"hero-info-wrap\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"row\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"col-12\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"hero-info\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h1>Good data guidelines<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<div class=\"social-wrap social-wrap-inline-them\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"sea-background-f\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<span>Share this article<\/span><a target=\"_blank\"  href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer\/sharer.php?u=https:\/\/www.bgs.ac.uk\/ngdc\/support-and-guidance\/good-data-guidelines\/\"><span class=\"icon-facebook\"><span class=\"hidden\">Facebook<\/span><\/span><\/a><a target=\"_blank\"  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=Good%20data%20guidelines&#038;url=https:\/\/www.bgs.ac.uk\/ngdc\/support-and-guidance\/good-data-guidelines\/\"><span class=\"icon-twitter\"><span class=\"hidden\">Twitter<\/span><\/span><\/a><a   onclick=\"javascript:void( (function() {var e=document.createElement('script' );e.setAttribute('type','text\/javascript' );e.setAttribute('charset','UTF-8' );e.setAttribute('src','\/\/assets.pinterest.com\/js\/pinmarklet.js?r='+Math.random()*99999999);document.body.appendChild(e)})());\"  href=\"javascript:void(0);\"><span class=\"icon-pinterest\"><span class=\"hidden\">Pinterest<\/span><\/span><\/a><a target=\"_blank\"  href=\"https:\/\/wa.me?text=https:\/\/www.bgs.ac.uk\/ngdc\/support-and-guidance\/good-data-guidelines\/\"><span class=\"icon-whatsapp\"><span class=\"hidden\">WhatsApp<\/span><\/span><\/a><a   href=\"mailto:?subject=Good%20data%20guidelines&#038;body=%20(https:\/\/www.bgs.ac.uk\/ngdc\/support-and-guidance\/good-data-guidelines\/)\"><span class=\"icon-mail\"><span class=\"hidden\">Email<\/span><\/span><\/a><a href=\"#\" data-copy=\"https:\/\/www.bgs.ac.uk\/ngdc\/support-and-guidance\/good-data-guidelines\/\" class=\"copy-url-on-click\"><span class=\"icon-link\"><span class=\"hidden\">Copy Link<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div><\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"img-wrap\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.bgs.ac.uk\/ngdc\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/05\/P823843-banner.webp\" class=\"lazy-blur hero-img\" alt=\"P823843-banner\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.bgs.ac.uk\/ngdc\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/05\/P823843-banner.webp\" \/>\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\n\n\n<section class=\"wp-block-bgs-blocks-content-container content-section\"><div class=\"container\"><div class=\"row\"><div class=\"col-12\">\n<p>Before depositing your digital data with NGDC, there are a number of things to consider to ensure your dataset is well organised, robust and accessible in the future.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To comply with good data guidelines, your deposited data should:&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>consistently include header rows and scientific units relating to any measurements&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>document details about any scientific standards, instrumentation, software, code or data collection methodologies used&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>be provided as a final version and therefore complete&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>ideally be \u2018open\u2019 data, allowing it to be discovered and re-used by other interested parties<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>use one of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bgs.ac.uk\/ngdc\/preferred-digital-formats\">preferred formats<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>have all acronyms explained and use consistent naming conventions, as in the naming strategy \u00a0\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>File naming strategy&nbsp;<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>By spending time designing how samples and data will be named, problems with duplicate names, identity confusion and future renaming and sorting tasks can be avoided. Naming schemes should be descriptive, unique and reflect the content of data or sample.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Your file and folder names should be meaningful and as brief as possible.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Start the file name with the most important component to allow organisation of your data by the most meaningful parameter, for example location, data type, researcher.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Use acronyms to keep the names short and include a\u00a0&#8216;readme&#8217;\u00a0note with a list of acronyms and their explanations in full.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Create<em>\u00a0<\/em>&#8216;readme&#8217;\u00a0notes of other relevant information such as file type and version information, software information, researchers\u2019 initials, or repeated metadata relating to all the files (for example, the data collection location).\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Use capital letters to delimit words instead of spaces, for example FileNameExample; this makes the file name a character shorter.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Avoid using special characters (@#\u00a3$%&amp;) as they may not work in other operating systems.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For dates, use the ISO standard YYYYMMDD, or YYMMDD or YYMM.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Use folder names to classify broad types of files.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Think!\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Is it possible for future users to know the content of the file without opening it, using just the file name and any\u00a0&#8216;readme&#8217;\u00a0notes provided?\u00a0\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Can they identify the content if you move the file to another folder?&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Can they retrieve and filter the data quickly using the search or filter function on their computer?&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Bulk renaming<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>If you have a lot of files that you need to rename to comply with a naming convention, here are a few applications you can try:\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Bulk Rename Utility (Windows, free)&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Total Commander (Windows, free)&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Renamer 4 (Mac, not free)&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>PSRenamer (Linux, Mac, or Windows, free and open source)&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Further guidance&nbsp;<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bgs.ac.uk\/ngdc\/metadata\">Metadata<\/a>&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bgs.ac.uk\/ngdc\/confidentiality-and-data-sharing-agreements\">Confidentiality and data sharing agreements<\/a>&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bgs.ac.uk\/ngdc\/preferred-digital-formats\">Preferred digital formats<\/a>&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bgs.ac.uk\/ngdc\/ags-data-format\">AGS data format<\/a>&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bgs.ac.uk\/ngdc\/citing-data\">Citing data<\/a>&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"parent":505,"menu_order":3,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"1","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"tags":[],"class_list":["post-522","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Good data guidelines - NGDC<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bgs.ac.uk\/ngdc\/support-and-guidance\/good-data-guidelines\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Good data guidelines - NGDC\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.bgs.ac.uk\/ngdc\/support-and-guidance\/good-data-guidelines\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"NGDC\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-07-28T12:54:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.bgs.ac.uk\/ngdc\/support-and-guidance\/good-data-guidelines\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.bgs.ac.uk\/ngdc\/support-and-guidance\/good-data-guidelines\/\",\"name\":\"Good data guidelines - NGDC\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.bgs.ac.uk\/ngdc\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2025-07-28T12:54:14+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-07-28T12:54:15+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.bgs.ac.uk\/ngdc\/support-and-guidance\/good-data-guidelines\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.bgs.ac.uk\/ngdc\/support-and-guidance\/good-data-guidelines\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.bgs.ac.uk\/ngdc\/support-and-guidance\/good-data-guidelines\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.bgs.ac.uk\/ngdc\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Support and guidance\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.bgs.ac.uk\/ngdc\/support-and-guidance\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Good data guidelines\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.bgs.ac.uk\/ngdc\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.bgs.ac.uk\/ngdc\/\",\"name\":\"NGDC\",\"description\":\" Collecting and preserving geoscientific data and information\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.bgs.ac.uk\/ngdc\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.bgs.ac.uk\/ngdc\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.bgs.ac.uk\/ngdc\/#organization\",\"name\":\"NGDC\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.bgs.ac.uk\/ngdc\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.bgs.ac.uk\/ngdc\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.bgs.ac.uk\/ngdc\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/04\/cropped-BGS_NGDC_pos-2.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.bgs.ac.uk\/ngdc\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/04\/cropped-BGS_NGDC_pos-2.png\",\"width\":315,\"height\":98,\"caption\":\"NGDC\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.bgs.ac.uk\/ngdc\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Good data guidelines - NGDC","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.bgs.ac.uk\/ngdc\/support-and-guidance\/good-data-guidelines\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Good data guidelines - NGDC","og_url":"https:\/\/www.bgs.ac.uk\/ngdc\/support-and-guidance\/good-data-guidelines\/","og_site_name":"NGDC","article_modified_time":"2025-07-28T12:54:15+00:00","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Estimated reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.bgs.ac.uk\/ngdc\/support-and-guidance\/good-data-guidelines\/","url":"https:\/\/www.bgs.ac.uk\/ngdc\/support-and-guidance\/good-data-guidelines\/","name":"Good data guidelines - NGDC","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.bgs.ac.uk\/ngdc\/#website"},"datePublished":"2025-07-28T12:54:14+00:00","dateModified":"2025-07-28T12:54:15+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.bgs.ac.uk\/ngdc\/support-and-guidance\/good-data-guidelines\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.bgs.ac.uk\/ngdc\/support-and-guidance\/good-data-guidelines\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.bgs.ac.uk\/ngdc\/support-and-guidance\/good-data-guidelines\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.bgs.ac.uk\/ngdc\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Support and guidance","item":"https:\/\/www.bgs.ac.uk\/ngdc\/support-and-guidance\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Good data guidelines"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.bgs.ac.uk\/ngdc\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.bgs.ac.uk\/ngdc\/","name":"NGDC","description":" Collecting and preserving geoscientific data and information","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.bgs.ac.uk\/ngdc\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.bgs.ac.uk\/ngdc\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.bgs.ac.uk\/ngdc\/#organization","name":"NGDC","url":"https:\/\/www.bgs.ac.uk\/ngdc\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/www.bgs.ac.uk\/ngdc\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.bgs.ac.uk\/ngdc\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/04\/cropped-BGS_NGDC_pos-2.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.bgs.ac.uk\/ngdc\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/04\/cropped-BGS_NGDC_pos-2.png","width":315,"height":98,"caption":"NGDC"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.bgs.ac.uk\/ngdc\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bgs.ac.uk\/ngdc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bgs.ac.uk\/ngdc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bgs.ac.uk\/ngdc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bgs.ac.uk\/ngdc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bgs.ac.uk\/ngdc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=522"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.bgs.ac.uk\/ngdc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/522\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":752,"href":"https:\/\/www.bgs.ac.uk\/ngdc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/522\/revisions\/752"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bgs.ac.uk\/ngdc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bgs.ac.uk\/ngdc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bgs.ac.uk\/ngdc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}