Collecting and organising your data

If you are collecting personal data, you need to ensure your data collection is ethical and complaint. This includes adhering to data protection rules and obtaining informed consent. See the section Ethical and legal issues.

If you are using surveys to collect personal data, you will need to be sure your survey also is compliant with data protection rules. See the University guidance on GDPR Compliant surveys.

When using survey, interview, or other tools to collect data, you should move the data to a more suitable storage service that is secure and backed up as soon as possible and in-line with best practice. In most cases, data should not be stored for the duration of the project on collection tools.

The University provides several tools for conducting surveys for research purposes.

Recommended tools

Microsoft Forms: Available to everyone, but recommended for use by undergraduates and PGTs.

JISC Online Surveys (v3): All research staff and PGRs can request a licence.

See the Knowledge Base article How to create a new JISC Online Survey for more support.

See the University guidance on GDPR Compliant surveys.

Other tools

On exception where you need to use another survey tool, contact Research IT via the IT Services self-service portal to discuss.

Do not use

There are many free survey tools available such as Google Forms and Survey Monkey, but be aware that these are not suitable for research purposes nor do they meet data protection requirements. It is best to avoid them.

 Digital data come in many formats. During your project, the type of data you collect will typically determine their format. In some cases, this may be a specialised format commonly used in your discipline and may require specific software or a cost to use which might be barriers for others to access them. As well, advances in technology can mean that some formats are no longer supported or become obsolete.

To ensure your data are accessible and usable in the future, it is important that their format supports this. If you can be flexible in your approach, then you should consider using open and archive friendly formats. In other cases, you may need to migrate or digitise your data to a new format.

The UK Data Service provides guidance and a list of recommended formats for a variety of data types.

Good file names and folder structures will ensure you can locate your files quickly and efficiently.

File names should be short but meaningful. They should reflect your project and use elements that clearly identify the contents of each file.

A well organised folder structure will help you find which file you are looking for. The structure should reflect your project and support your work.

Information and Records Management have good practice guides for organising your data, including filing systems and naming conventions.

You can also find guidance and tips on file naming and folder structures from the UK Data Service.

Versioning creates a record of the changes made to a document or file. It ensures you can find and work on the most up-to-date file. It also means that if you make a mistake, you can go back and locate where the error was made without having to start from the beginning. A good version control system will depend on whether you are working alone or with multiple people.

Information and Records Management have a good practice guide on version control.

You can also find guidance on versioning from the UK Data Service.

Documentation is the contextual information about your data and research project. It will also be a record of what you did and how you did it allowing you to see your decisions and processes.

Examples of documentation include

• Data Management Plans (DMPs)
• Lab or field notebooks
• Annotation
• Variable descriptions
• Codebooks
• README files

Documentation occurs throughout your project and can be made available alongside your data. This means the data are understandable and reusable. Some disciplines have specific standards for data-level description. But however you document your project and data, it should be done clearly and consistently.

The UK Data Service has more information and resources for documenting data including best practice for describing qualitative and quantitative data.