A ReadMe file includes detailed information about your dataset so that other researchers can interpret, understand, and thereby reuse your data and/or replicate your experiment. This also includes information about how the dataset was created, how complete it is, and what kind of restrictions it has. In DataRepositóriUM, this type of documentation can be provided in two ways:
- in the description fields (metadata), and
- in a separate ReadMe file that you can upload along with your data files.
The ReadMe file should contain, at a minimum, the following information:
- Project/Dissertation/Thesis (title)
- Project/Funding (name/acronym/funding ID)
- Author (name)
- Contact (email)
- Dataset description (description of the data collection steps and methods, data sources, processing, analysis, and visualization; instruments used, software, and their versions; describe the files [file by file - this can be done directly in DataRepositóriUM]; identify reused data (licenses, terms of use, PIDs, etc.))
- Terms of access and use (license assignment and conditions under which it can be used)
ReadMe file format: .txt
- The ReadMe file should be created in plain text format with Unicode UTF-8 character encoding (.txt). If you need to illustrate or format your description, you can save your ReadMe file as a PDF (see the DataRepositóriUM Guide section on file formats here).
ReadMe file name: 00_ReadMe
- You can name this file by prefixing "00_" to the ReadMe file name (e.g., "00_ReadMe.txt"), which will make it appear at the top of your dataset's overview.