Folder structures
Examples
http://nikola.me/folder_structure.html (folder structure download available on the website)
Folder structure template for research repositories
Make sure you have enough (sub)folders so that files can be stored in the right folder and are not scattered in folders where they don’t belong or stored in large quantities in a single folder (which makes it hard to find the files).
Make sure the folder structure is clear: you can structure folders based on the person that has generated the data/folder, chronologically (month, year, sessions), per project (as done in the example above), or based on analysis method/equipment/type of data.
See also: Find Files Faster: How to Organize Files and Folders & Data Management: File Organization
Cookie Cutter templates
Use the cookiecutter templates to download folder structures through GitHub. The template by Barbara Vreede follows the template proposed by Wilson et al. (2017): https://github.com/bvreede/good-enough-project
Follow the instructions here if you need more guidance.
In general it is good practise to:
have one folder/directory per project
to save your raw data separately (and make it read only to ensure that it is not accidentally altered)
to create a subdirectory for your output (for example: Manuscript output, figures, numerical output)
More information
Borer et al. 2009: Some Simple Guidelines for Effective Data Management
Briney et al. 2020: Foundational Practices of Research Data Management
Noble 2009: A Quick Guide to Organizing Computational Biology Projects
Data management mistakes (2 min video)
Webinar: Data Management Basics 1: Introduction to data management and sharing
Videos on project structure by Danielle Navarro