Description
This issue summarizes the thread from Slack about useful data management tips for scientists BEFORE they leave for field works. Thank you everyone who chimed in!
Dean Pentcheff: You are probably planning to deposit your specimens in a museum (or similar) collection. BEFORE THE TRIP, have a conversation with the collections manager at that institution to find out what their data guidelines are for event/collection/specimen metadata. If you know those guidelines before you design your data log format for the trip, it can make specimen deposition much easier, and leads to better permanent metadata,.
You don't have to limit yourself to the data fields your target organization uses, but if you collect data in a way that makes it easy to transform for deposit, everyone saves time, and less data tweaking means fewer inadvertent editing errors.
@MathewBiddle Through the Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP) and the Deep Ocean Observing Strategy (DOOS) we built an "Easy Resources for Managing your Ocean Data" infographic:
https://www.deepoceanobserving.org/pages/41e5b75c2c49442eb40b968d9ccff411