Project Template

Project Overview

This is a large repository meant to house any number of individual studies and drafts that are all in some way connected. For example, in the 1-Project_Management/2-Finance/ folder, there is a sub-project for developing an NSF grant. As a variety of studies will often come of a single grant, these are held in the 3-Studies folder.

Repositories built from this template are not meant to be public, as the contents held within are internal and may include information like account numbers, emails, and so on. This is for working in and archiving content.

Note that you’re welcome to use a copy of this repository for each individual study if you like. It is meant to be flexible. Not everything need even be used. No grant? Skip the Finance folder, for example.

Status	(What is the status of the project? Drafting, submitted, R&R, in review, et cetera)
Internal ID	(If a project submitted to sponsored projects.)
Submission Type	(Type of project. Grant, paper, talk, et cetera.)
Title	(Give your project a title. Note that the repo’s codename will be a unique identifier, while the Title here is descriptive.)
Abstract/Overview	(An overview of the project. If a paper, could be the abstract. For a grant, could be the executive summary. For a talk, the proposal.)
Last Update	YYYY-MM-DD

sapphire stoat

Create a codename for the project and repository. Modeled on Andrew Heiss’s projects and the codename library. For example, mountainous-mackerel.

library(codename)
codename_message()
#|> code name generated by {codename} v.0.5.0

codename(seed = "MA{VR}X Lab Project Template repository", type = "ubuntu")
#|> [1] "sapphire stoat"

Template Information

Based on the template Setting up an Organised Folder Structure for Research Projects by Nikola Vukovic and tweaked by Ryan Straight with the MA{VR}X Lab in mind, specifically, as the focus is on using R for data analysis, this template is simple enough to fit most needs and has the media structure necessary for projects within the lab.

If you’d rather not use the R-based Quarto ecosystem for writing that’s present in the template, that’s fine. The folder structure will still serve you well.

A placeholder publication draft can be found in 3-Studies/001-Study_1/. It is a Quarto document that uses the Hikmah Quarto templates template as it produces a nice APA-like document.

Banner image

The banner image shared is one made for the lab using Canva. Whether using one like it or another, you should probably use the codename for the project on your banner rather than something else. The ubuntu codename style works well with the template.

Authors

1. Update the contributors_table_template.csv file in 1-Project_Management/4-Administration/ with relevant authors and contributors.
2. Upload the CSV in step 2 of the tenzing Shiny app. (You can use the file provided as a demonstration if you like.)
3. Choose the method of getting the author contributions that make sense for your publication outlet.

Research Production

The resultant publications from this project go in 4-Dissemination/2-Publications/ in subfolders for each individual publication. This should be a considered an archival step.

Folder and file structure

This is the default structure for a project. It’s very basic and you should feel welcome to alter it to your liking. There is another README in the 3-Study/2-Content/2-Media/ folder that explains the extensive structure there. This structure is not meant to be in chronological order, just organized.

1. Project Management
   1. Proposals (drafting proposal content, letters of support, and so on)
   2. Finance (notes on seeking funding, copies of grant proposals, etc; contains NSF grant template updated as of 2023 requirements)
   3. Reports (not papers; project-related reports like status)
   4. Administration (CRediT author list, publication checklist)
2. Ethics Governance
   1. Ethics Approval (IRB protocol, CITI certification)
   2. Forms (blank consent, waiver, etc forms that have been approved by the IRB; completed forms should be stored securely)
3. Study (001-Study_1 subfolder contains a template with the following for each different study)
   1. Input (files/docs used in the experiment itself; survey instrument, anything)
   2. Content
      1. Data (raw and tidied data)
      2. Media (video recordings, audio, screencasts, so on; do not include identifiable participant content)
   3. Data Analysis (eda, munging scripts, transformation, etc)
   4. Outputs (tables, figures, etc)
   5. Drafts (One folder for each draft publication; there is a template Quarto file included in folder 01. Rename 01 to the outlet you’re targeting with that particular draft.
4. Dissemination (these folders are archives to easily find content derived from this project)
   1. Presentations (put slide decks and whatnot in here)
   2. Publications (finished publications in their final form go here, while preprints would stay in the study’s drafts folder)
   3. Publicity (any sort of publicity like social media posts, et cetera)

Note that the Dissemination folder is for archiving content. Once something is published or made available, put a copy in the appropriate folder.