Preparation of Supporting Documentation

• 2. Deposit Preparation
  • Collect and Prepare Supporting Documentation
    • Preparation of Supporting Documentation
      • Preferred Deposit Formats
      • File & Folder Naming Conventions
      • Zipping and Encrypting Files and Folders
        • Instructions on how to Zip and Encrypt a file or folder
    • Collection of Supporting Documentation

Items of Supporting Documentation

All items of supporting documentation are to be uploaded to the dataset(s) and should be named accordingly, making them readily identifiable to ADA Staff and secondary users who are granted access to the data. Examples of supporting documentation that should be uploaded where they exist include:

a. User Data Manuals – for data related manuals

b. Data Dictionary

c. Questionnaire’s or Show Cards

d. Data Collection Form

e. Codebooks

f. Coding Frames or Guides

g. Reports

h. Technical Documents

i. Syntax for created and derived variables

j. Publications that you want referenced in the deposit – ensure that you have the copyright agreement to share these. The ADA may hold copies that are not able to be included within Dataverse for download or publication by agreement only.

k. Interview templates and guides

l. Ethics approval and Consent forms

m. Any other materials that may be helpful to a researcher in analysing and interpreting the data

If you have supporting documentation in addition to those items listed above, you are encouraged to upload the information as part of the data submission. The ADA Staff during the curation process will then determine if the information is required. If in doubt, you can always contact the ADA.

Preparation of Supporting Documentation Guidance Notes

1. Ensure that the supporting documentation files are saved in an appropriate file format.

Having the files in one of the ADA preferred formats ensures that the ADA are in a strong position to forward migrate the supporting documentation in response to any technology advancements and maximises the chances that other users will be able to access and use the material.

2. Ensure that the data files and folders are named correctly.

The correct naming of files and folders ensures that both the ADA Staff and secondary users are able to easily identify the files when accessing the information through Dataverse.

3. Double-Zip the supporting documentation files and folders where required, in preparation for the population of the 'Shell Dataverse and Dataset'.

Double-zipping is required on certain supporting documentation files and folder uploads. A single layer of zipping is removed by Dataverse during the upload process and if a layer of zipping is not retained post upload, there is a known issue in Dataverse Version 4.6.1 that removes formatting from certain file types (SPSS, Stata, SAS, CSV and Excel file extension types). Therefore the double-zipping of files and folders is required to ensure that a single layer remains post upload to protect any file formatting.

In addition, if the supporting documentation file or folder is uploaded directly without any layers of zipping, dataverse adds an 'Explore' button that enables functionality that the ADA do not want available at the present time.

Frequently Asked Questions

• What do I do if my supporting documentation does not exist in an electronic format?
• What Format do my supporting documentation files need to be in?