Best practices

To avoid data loss, it is important to keep in mind certain best practices for data storage:

Where should I store my data ?

Important data should be kept in secure location. Avoid storing your data on your laptop or on commercial external solution (Dropbox, Google Drive). They could be read by other people and you could lose your data property. 

We recommend that you keep three copies of your important data, at least two of which should be stored outside your laptop. If you store data on your laptop, make sure they are properly backed up on a regular basis. 

Please, use the solutions recommended by UCLouvain (Sharepoint Online, OneDrive) : these are the best solutions to ensure compliance with the GDPR, ethical requirement, and intellectual property. Storage solutions depend on various criteria: for example, do you need to share your data with your research partners? What's your data volume? 

How can I do this ?

If multiple versions of a datasets are produced, it is best to follow a file naming convention. 

All these versions do not necessarily need to be stored in 3 copies, but at least keep the raw data, the cured one, and the versions used for publications.

At the end of the project, deposit your data on a repository, where they can be preserved for long term.

To learn more about the storage solutions offered by UCLouvain and their advantages, click on this link