Checklist
This checklist helps ensure data is ready for analyses at SQUARE.
To tidy your data, maybe you find some documents at our self directed learning page helpful.
Ethical
- Data is offered through SQUARE sharepoint
- Identifiers are removed (and stored elsewhere)
Tables
- Each table is in its own file or tab, with nothing else, in *.txt, *.csv, *.sav, *.xlsx
- Table names, when multiple exist, reflect the research unit (observation, patient, ...)
Codebook / Data property table
- Metadata: includes all relevant information not intuitively clear from the data
- Per variable with working name:
- name: comprehensible name
- scale: numeric - ordered - nominal - ...
- role: dependent - independent - manifest with link to latent - ...
- comment: additional information for interpretation
Columns
~ properties of research units
- Each column relates to a particular property (e.g., treatment)
- A column contains data of one type only (except for missing values)
- Each column has a unique header (column name)
- Column headers are consistent, also when representing a pattern
- Column headers are short, simple (no special symbols) and at least minimally meaningful
RowsÂ
~ individual research units
- Each row relates to a particular research unit (e.g., patient)
- A row is uniquely identifiable (either by ID, or anything else)
Cells
~ property of a particular research unit
- Each cell relates a property to a research unit
- One and only one piece of information is included
- A decimal indicator is used consistently
- Missing values are consistently registered
Data example
- research unit is car type, one per row
- properties in the columns
Metadata example
- for each variable the relevant specifications
- includes the original variable name
