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Organizing your files

Having a standard way to organize not only your data but also your code, the results, the documentation... from the beginning of a project can go a long way to save you a lot of time down the line (when communicating within or outside your lab, or when you have to wrap things up when moving to a new project/job).

Templates

Using the the Cookiecutter python package is a good way to get started to use a standardised folder structure. See for example an example for data science

But there are other possibilities: see here or here.

And some project template on OSF that can be forked and reused:

The Brain Imaging Data Structure (BIDS)

If you are going to do some MRI, fMRI, MEEG... analysis you will quickly drown in data if you are not a bit organized, we highly recommend you use the brain imaging data structure standard (BIDS) to organize your data.

The current version of BIDS covers raw data and some aspects of derivative data (e.g preprocessed data). In general BIDS also allows you to more easily share your data and use plenty of analytical tools.

If you would like to use BIDS but you have no idea what a JSON file and / or the length of the specification document scares you, head over to the BIDS starter kit to find tutorials and scripts to help you rearrange your data.

KEEPING your files organized

Not matter how clean your starting point is, it won't help if you don't have good every day practices to make sure everything stays clean.

Some suggestions on how to do that from from Danielle Navarro.

And some more from Marijn van Vliet