RDIM Terminology Folder Structures

Folder Structures

Planning for and maintaining a consistent and logical folder structure has many benefits. It can:

  • save you time searching for files
  • enhance collaboration, as everyone in the team can locate and understand shared materials
  • help ensure data integrity by reducing the risk of accidental deletion or misplacement
  • allow you to more easily revisit and share your work.

The optimal folder structure will depend on the nature and complexity of your research project and your disciplinary area.

Below is a hypothetical example illustrating the folder structure for a research project based on experiments:

Project
.../Admin
....../Budget
....../EthicsApprovals
....../Funding
....../Meetings
....../Proposal
.../Data
....../Experiment01
........./Analyses
........./DerivedData
........./Inputs
........./RawData
........./Scripts
....../Experiment02
....../Experiment03
.../Outputs
....../Presentations
....../Publications
........./2022-Mohammed-JCB-CytonemeSignalling *
............/Drafts
............/FiguresTables
........./Nguyen-Cell-ImmuneEvasion
....../Thesis
*A date (year) in the folder name indicates the paper is published.

Note: only data required to validate your findings (in a publication or thesis) needs to be archived in Research Data JCU via a Data Record.

The UK Data Service also provides general advice on folder structures and notes that it can help to restrict the level of folders to three or four deep, and not to have more than ten items in each list.