What are the best file naming conventions for research files?

When naming my files I want to be as clear as possible and straight-forward. I love naming my files with a descriptive title that shows exactly whats inside the file.

A common and effective filing name convention using numbers is to use a combination of a date-based system and a unique identifier. For example: • YYYYMMDD-001 • 20231022-001 In this convention, “YYYYMMDD” represents the date (Year, Month, Day), and “001” is a unique identifier for each file. This method allows for easy chronological sorting and quick reference, especially when dealing with a large number of files. You can increment the identifier for each new file.

Effective file naming involves using clear, descriptive titles, including relevant dates, using underscores or hyphens for readability, avoiding special characters, maintaining consistency, incorporating version numbers if needed, prioritizing key information, keeping names concise, using abbreviations wisely, categorizing files, and avoiding spaces. This ensures organized and easily accessible research files. Examples of well-structured file names could be: "Market_Research_Report_Q3_2022" "Experiment_Data_Set_1_2023" "Interview_Transcripts_Client_A_June_2022"

Use descriptive title that can be undetstood by everyone. You could name bading on the subject matter of the document. Make use of time / dates when naming. Forexample “Recruitment report- Aug/23

Using descriptive file names that provide a clear indication of the file's content. Naming conventions are those that suit your specific research needs and maintain consistency throughout your project.

I find the suggestion about using separators and avoiding spaces in file names to be particularly valuable. In my experience, utilizing characters like hyphens, underscores, or periods as separators can significantly enhance the organization and readability of file names. By employing these separators, I can create a clear distinction between different segments within the file name, making it easier to comprehend the content at a glance.

This is certainly noteworthy. I have come across the same instances as what's mention in this topic. Consequently, restricting file names to only alphanumeric characters, alongside the utilization of separators, can help mitigate these potential issues. Ensuring that you follow this practice can result to a smoother file management and seamless interactions across different platforms/servers.

Apart from this, I believe it is essential to review and update the folder structure from time to time to accommodate any changes or new development in any projects you are working on.

Collectively, the suggestions here are great and would work well when you combine them, like the use of folders to group content and adding date and time to filenames. Other variations I use: Inside the folder (ex. Customer Satisfaction), I create a 3-level subfolders for year, then year-month and finally year-month-day, and inside are the files. This works well when dealing with multiple revisions, and not just manually created docs but system generated files like log files. I also use double underscore to group parts of file (if you don't like the complex folder approach). Example: Customer_Satisfaction__New_York__2023-10-06.xlsx Single underscore or dash is to make words easy to read, double under is to act as separator.

1. Descriptive and concise: Use names that accurately describe the content of the file in a concise manner. Avoid generic names like "Untitled" or "Document1" that provide little information. 2. Date-based 3. Version control: If you make revisions to a file, consider adding a version number or a timestamp to the file name. This allows you to differentiate between different iterations and track the most recent version. 4. Consistency: 5. Order of information: Arrange the elements in the file name in a logical order. For example, you could start with the date, followed by a brief description, and then any additional identifiers such as author initials or project codes. 6. Avoid special characters.