Continuing our annual tradition, for this October’s Data Nudge we bring you scary tales of data management gone wrong.
The Horrors of Sharing Files over Email
We’ve all been tempted, in moments of weakness, to share working files as email attachments, but with multiple collaborators that method can go terribly, terribly wrong.
The Perils of Putting Robots in Charge
Using shared storage with editing capabilities – like Box, Google Drive, or OneDrive – will save you from Frankenstein files, but don’t put all your faith in their automatic version tracking.
Yes, it’s super helpful that tools like Box, Google Drive, and OneDrive allow you to access previous versions, but they can’t tell the difference between minor updates and major changes.
Choose the Safe Path
Use shared storage with editing capabilities, but don’t rely solely on automatic versioning. At key stages in your work, either manually save a version you can revert back to, or if you’re using Google Drive, rename an automatic version so you can easily find it later.
And always lock down a copy of your raw data before you start making changes. All automatic version tracking has limits. You don’t want to look back and find that your earliest versions have disappeared.
See this past Data Nudge for quick tips on manual version control.
All Data Nudges are licensed under CC BY 4.0. You are free to share, adopt, or adapt them and cite the Illinois Research Data Service.