st: Workflow and file organisation

[Richard Moverare <richard.moverare@gmail.com>]

Hi!

I am spending a few summer days reading Scott Long's book Workflow for
data analysis using Stata. There are a lot of good suggestions there
and the book is really worth reading. Of course, I am now considering
revising my workflow. Long recommends using one folder that keeps all
material for a specific project, and there having a folder for posted
materials and a folder for work material. I have used another strategy
where I have all my data in a special folder. This have some
drawbacks, but on the other hand I see a few advantages as well: 1) I
have many large files that I use for several projects and I don't
really like to have multiple copies of them (as Long's suggestions
would lead to) and 2) I can more easily find all my data on, say
regional GDP figures, without going through all my project files. On
the other hand, if I change something in my datasets, I might not see
what this will lead to when it comes to replicability of the different
projects.

So how about all you researchers out there, how do you organize your
datasets and do-files? Please share your experiences. And, as
mentioned, do read the book, it is really worth it.

All the best,
Richard
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