Organize

Creating well-structured filenames is a foundational step to ensure your research is organized, navigable, and reproducible.

Why it matters

Clear and consistent file names help both machines and humans understand what your files contain. Machine readability, intuitive structure, and predictable ordering all contribute to better data management (UBC RDM GitHub).

Three important principles

Machine-Readable Recommendations

• Use only alphanumeric characters (letters, numbers) and delimiters like _ or -
• Avoid spaces and special characters like #, !, &, %, etc.
• Stick to one convention (e.g. snake_case if using Python/R)
• Be consistent across all files in a project

Human-Readable Recommendations

• Limit filename elements to 3–5 concise components
• Include key project identifiers, content description, and versioning
• Reserve acronyms/codes only when necessary—define them clearly in your README.md file

Default Ordering Recommendations

• Chronological order: Start filenames with dates in YYYY-MM-DD or YYYYMMDD format for correct sorting
• Logical ordering: Use leading zeros (e.g. 001, 002, … 010) for version and sequence clarity
• Place version/tag last: E.g. _v01, _raw, _processed

Filename Example

20250710_GALT01_surveyresults_v01.csv

• 20250710: ISO date
• GALT01: Short project code
• surveyresults: Content summary
• v01: Version indicator
• .csv: Extension, ideally non-proprietary

Additional Tips

• Collaboratively agreed-upon naming rules across your lab or team make sharing and understanding easier
• Document conventions in README.md, including a glossary for project codes or acronyms

Learn More

Explore practical examples and exercises through UBC’s full File Naming workshop (UBC RDM GitHub)