DSS Social Sciences Workshop Resources

Objectives:

1. Recognize and resolve common spreadsheet formatting problems.
2. Describe the importance of metadata.
3. Identify metadata that should be included with a dataset.

Key Points:

1. Never modify your raw data. Always make a copy before making any changes.
2. Keep track of all of the steps you take to clean your data.
3. Organize your data according to tidy data principles.
4. Record metadata in a separate plain text file.

Objectives:

1. Recognize and resolve common spreadsheet formatting problems.

Key Points:

1. Avoid using multiple tables within one spreadsheet.
2. Avoid spreading data across multiple tabs (but do use a new tab to record data cleaning or manipulations).
3. Record zeros as zeros.
4. Use an appropriate null value to record missing data.
5. Don’t use formatting to convey information or to make your spreadsheet look pretty.
6. Place comments in a separate column.
7. Record units in column headers.
8. Include only one piece of information in a cell.
9. Avoid spaces, numbers and special characters in column headers.
10. Avoid special characters in your data.