Documenting and describing data

A crucial part of ensuring that research data can be shared and reused is making sure they are understandable. Both original researchers returning to their files later and new users exploring the material need clear contextual and explanatory information to make sense of the data.

Documentation deposited alongside data files should enable anyone with no prior knowledge of the project to understand exactly how the research was carried out and what the data mean. This requires thorough data description and annotation. Alongside analytical context, files must also include the necessary metadata for discovering and citing the data, helping secondary users interpret the material correctly and conduct informed research.