Subject guides: Research Data Management (RDM): File Naming

File Naming

Digital file names are important for identifying and finding a digital file. Researchers should develop and communicate a clear system of naming files so everyone involved in the research project understands and can appropriately apply the file naming rules to create and locate files.

Research data files and folders should be labelled and organised in a systematic and consistent way. It’s generally recommended for file and folder names to be concise, but informative enough to detail the contents of the file. They should uniquely identify a file and help in classifying and sorting files.

The most important things to remember about file naming are:

✦ Descriptiveness - Good naming conventions should provide useful cues to the content and status of a file, including its version.

✦ Uniqueness - Make file names unique, including the most important identifying information of the project

✦ Consistent application - By selecting an appropriate naming convention for files as early as possible and follow it throughout the research, the benefit from file naming systems will be maximised.

File Name Elements

Here are some common elements to consider when naming your files.

File names should be short, so do not try to include all of these, but elements of a good file name may include:

✦ Project number, name, acronym or research data name

✦ Description of content

✦ Version number

✦ Date of creation (date format should be YYYY-MM-DD)

✦ Name or initials of creator/researcher

✦ Status information (e.g. draft)

Good practice in file and folder naming

Brief	Create meaningful but brief names. Avoid very long file names, ideally no more than 32 characters. ThisIsJustWhatThirtyTwoLooksLike.txt
Consistent	Be consistent and include similar information in all file names of the same file type.
Ordered	Consider sorting order (usually lexicographic) and logical hierarchies in file directories.
Non-Generic	Avoid ambiguous and confusing names, such as 'MyData' or 'sample'.
Use zeros	Use leading zeros when incorporating numbers to enable sorting (a sequence of 1-100 should be numbered 001-100).
Similar but differentiated	Derivatives and versions should have similar (but differentiated) names to keep them co-located but still uniquely identified.
Contextualise	Names should reflect the contents of the file and/or the stage of development.
Date format	Use dates in the format YYYY-MM-DD (Example: March 7, 2004 would be written '2004-03-07').
No spaces	Use hyphens (-) or underscores (_) to separate elements in a file name instead of spaces.
Limit symbols	Avoid using spaces, dots and special characters (& or ? or !).
Case use	Avoid using case differences to distinguish between files: ‘Record’, ‘record’, and ‘RECORD’ may be three different file names or the same file name, depending on the operating system
Extension	Reserve the 3-letter file extension for application-specific codes of file format (e.g. .doc, .xls, .mov, .tif)
Versioning	Include versioning within file names where appropriate

Putting this into practice

Scenario On the 15th of September 2010, Jane Doe Scientist performed tests in Dry Valley using Inductively Coupled Plasma – Atomic Emission Spectroscopy. This file contains a second round of analysis.
Bad File Name Example	Good File Name Example
my Data @DryValley November 15 2010.< ICP-atomic emission spectroscopy>second temp.dat	DV_ICPAES_20101115_JDSv2.dat
✦ Bad length. Should be no more than 32 characters. ✦ Avoid using generic and ambiguous names such as 'my Data' ✦ Do not use spaces and special characters within the document name. ✦ Use appropriate version control instead of descriptive words e.g. First One, Last One, Final etc ✦ Avoid ambiguous abbreviations - temp could mean template, temporary etc. Use the full word instead	✦ File names are concise and meaningful ✦ Date format: yyyymmdd. When referring to year only, always use four digits ✦ Terms are separated with an underscore avoiding punctuation and spaces ✦ Sentence case including a capital letter for names and proper nouns
	Legend: - DV is the site code (Dry Valley), - ICPAES is the instrument from which the data originated, - 20101115 is the date of the sample run on the instrument, - JDS are the initials of Jane Doe Scientist - This is the second version of the data file.

From Knowledge clip: Keeping research data organized [Video], by UGent Open Science, 2021, Ghent University. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Ogbkx74Ym8). CC BY NC ND.