Project Data Archives
Once a project is completed and especially when findings are reported in a publication,
it is expected that the main author creates a “Project Data Archive”.
What to archive
- All production runs: input/output files, including atomic geometries, scripts, etc.
- Any custom source code
- Figures: data used, final figure files (pdf, eps, bitmaps,…) and source (e.g., Origin, LaTeX-TikZ, Inkscape, Gimp, CorelDraw,…)
- Article: source file (LaTeX, OpenOffice, Word,…)
- Bibliography: original PDF (or any other) files of all cited references if available; BibTeX, EndNote-RIS files.
- Any other media related to the publication: audio/video clips, software scripts, custom code used, etc.
- All correspondence: (re-)submission related, cover letters, referees reports, author response, etc.
- Media coverages, graphics
Organize
- Create a separate directory for each of the above items above
- Document your archive: create a README file that describes archive content.
Preferably, once the archive is structured/complete run in the top-level
tree -L 2 --charset=ascii
and include it in the README. Annotate the tree.
Backup
- Follow for instance the “3-2-1” rule:
– 3 copies
– 2 formats
– 1 off-site - Provide optical disc copy to each co-author, or each separate group if multi-author, collaborative publications
Example
Here is the README file of the “Project Data Archive” for our article on graphene quantum dots in graphane:
Singh, A. K., Penev, E. S., and Yakobson, B. I., “Vacancy clusters in graphane as quantum dots,” ACS Nano 4, 3510–3514 (2010), doi: 10.1021/nn1006072
The image on the right is the DVD cover, which is also included in the archive.