6. Reporting
The Documents folder contains:
- A copy of your final research project
- Your data appendix
- Your Readme file.
Formats
1. The Final research project
Save a full text PDF copy of your final research project to the Documents folder, once you have completed the write up. Saving a copy of your research project in PDF format helps prevent the document from being changed accidentally or corrupted in some other way.
2. The Data appendix
The Data appendix is a document that serves as a codebook for the analysis data files. Refer to section 4 for more information about creating the Data appendix.
3. The Readme file
Write an explanation in your Readme file
The Readme file describes the files included in the replication documentation and explains how they can be used to replicate the study and reproduce the results. You, the author of the study, write this document.
The Readme file consists of three main sections:
- The contents of the replication documentation
- Modifications made to importable data files (if necessary)
- Instructions for replicating the study
A. The contents of the replication documentation
This section describes all the files included in the replication documentation and outlines the structure of the folders in which they are stored.
B. Modifications made to importable data files (if necessary)
This section should explain the changes you made to your importable data files. Refer back to section 3 for more information on importable data files. If no modifications were made to the original data file, you may simply omit this section from the Readme file. (In that case, you should call the last section of the Readme file section B, instead of section C.)
C. Instructions for replicating the study
This final section gives instructions for using the replication documentation to replicate the data processing and analysis conducted for the research project, to reproduce the reported results.
These instructions should:
- State what statistical software (including version number and required add-ons) are required to run the command files
- Explain which files included in the replication documentation need to be copied onto the replicator’s computer, the structure of folders and sub-folders in which the files should be copied and which of the folders each file should be saved in
- Indicate which of the folders should be set as the working directory, when the statistical software that executes the command files is run
- Indicate the order in which the command files need to be run to carry out the replication. For each command file, indicate what other files it uses (e.g. what data files it opens and what other command files it calls) and what output it produces (e.g. new data files it saves, old data files it deletes and new directories it creates).
