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[DATASET TITLE] - This readme file was generated on [YYYY-MM-DD] by [NAME]
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<A readme is a simple text documents that describe the files and organization of your data, allowing others and your future self to understand and interpret what you've done. Items that are not relevant to your dataset may be removed or altered where appropriate.>

<This readme template is provided by McMaster University RDM Services for projects of any discipline and is adapted from Cornell's readme template (https://data.research.cornell.edu/content/readme) and Francesco Varrato, Alain Borel and Chiara Gabella's "README file for Datasets - Best practices and template" (https://infoscience.epfl.ch/record/298249)>

<Help text in angle brackets should be deleted before finalizing your document. [Text in square brackets should be changed for your specific dataset.]>

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1. GENERAL INFORMATION

Dataset Title: 

Overview: <Give a brief overview (2-3 sentences max) to guide the reader through the available materials and work through your steps from start to finish.> 

<Provide at least two contacts.>
Author/Principal Investigator Information
Name: 
ORCID: <Open Researcher and Contributor ID - ORCID is a persistent identifier to identify authors and contributors and connect your research outputs, including datasets, into an automatically updated CV that is unqiue to you apart from any other researchers that may share your name. Register at https://orcid.org/register.> 
Institution: 
<ROR: optional - this is a persistent identifier for research institutions that can be used to connect your research. McMaster's ROR is https://ror.org/02fa3aq29>
Address: <This should be the institutional address - McMaster's address is 1280 Main St W, Hamilton, ON L8S 4L8>
Email: <Consider including your institutional email as well as an alternate contact you can be reached at if you relocate to a different institution.>

Author/Associate or Co-investigator Contact Information
Name: 
ORCID:
Institution: 
<ROR: optional - this is a persistent identifier for research institutions that can be used to connect your research. McMaster's ROR is https://ror.org/02fa3aq29>
Address: <This should be the institutional address - McMaster's address is 1280 Main St W, Hamilton, ON L8S 4L8>
Email: <Consider including your institutional email as well as an alternate contact you can be reached at if you relocate to a different institution.>

Author/Alternate Contact Information
Name: 
ORCID:
Institution: <This should be the institutional address - McMaster's address is 1280 Main St W, Hamilton, ON L8S 4L8>
<ROR: optional - this is a persistent identifier for research institutions that can be used to connect your research. McMaster's ROR is https://ror.org/02fa3aq29>
Address: 
Email: <Consider including your institutional email as well as an alternate contact you can be reached at if you relocate to a different institution.>

Full Project team: <List everyone involved with collection, collaboration, processing, analysis and/or submission. NISO's Contributor Roles Taxonomy (CRediT) provides a list of roles typically played by contributors to scholarly output: https://credit.niso.org/>

Date of collection: <Provide single date, range, or approximate date; suggested format YYYY-MM-DD.> 

Geographic information: <If relevant to your dataset, provide location of data collection - latitude, longitude, or city/region, province, country.>

Funding information: <Include the granting agency and number for funding or sponsorship sources that supported the collection of the data.>

Ethics information: <If relevant to your dataset, include details on the research ethics board(s) which granted approval to the project>

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2. METADATA

[As author(s) of this dataset; I/we certify that the data is free of licensing and intellectual property issues; does not contain identifying or sensitive information; and that McMaster's Research Ethics Board has granted approval to share this dataset.]

Licenses/restrictions: <A license defines what can and can not be done with your data once made freely available. The most common data licenses are Creative Commons (CC) (https://creativecommons.org/choose/) and Open Data Commons (https://opendatacommons.org/). If you are depositing your data in McMaster Dataverse, you will select a license from the drop-down menu. For more information regarding data licenses, please refer to the McMaster RDM webpage (https://rdm.mcmaster.ca/publish#tab-data-licensing) or book a consultation with an RDM Specialist (https://u.mcmaster.ca/rdm-appointments).>

Dataset DOI/URL: <You will need to add your dataset to your chosen repository to obtain the DOI/URL for your dataset>

Related publications, outputs, and datasets: <If your data has any current citations or you have used the same dataset before, please add links to them here.>

Other repository locations: <Is your data available in a different repository, from your home institution, or another place? Please add links to them here.>

Ancillary datasets: <Complete this section if your dataset has any links/relationships to other datasets or was analyzed in comparison to other data.>

Was data derived from another source?
If yes, list source(s): <This section can be completed if you used another dataset as a starting point or have permission to share publicly available data that you have adjusted.>

Recommended citation for this dataset: 
<Data citation should include creators and contributors, date of publication, title of dataset, publisher/distributor/repository, persistent identifier, version. For example, data deposited in McMaster Dataverse could use the following recommended citation: "Raw data are available through McMaster Dataverse, a collection within Borealis, the Canadian Dataverse Repository as follows: [LASTNAME, FIRSTNAME, YYYY, "Dataset Title", https://doi.org/XXXXXX/XXXX, Borealis, V1, UNF:XXXXXX. For more information on specific citation styles, IASSIST has an array of examples: https://www.icpsr.umich.edu/files/ICPSR/enewsletters/iassist.html. For McMaster Dataverse, once you have started your submission the site will provide you with a completed citation you can copy here.> 

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3. DATA & FILE OVERVIEW

File list: <List all files (or folders, as appropriate for dataset organization) contained in the dataset, with a brief description of the structure. You can use Tree, a free webtool, to create a plain text file/folder tree diagram and copy it here. https://tree.nathanfriend.io/>

File formats: <Please list the formats of the files included in your dataset.>

File relationships: <Include a description of the relationships between between files, if important.>

Additional related data: <Mention any data that was collected but not included in the current data package.>

Dataset version: <We suggest keeping this section for future use and updating it if you change files within your dataset.>

Changelog: <If/When you update the version of your dataset, include information on what you have changed here. Which file(s) did you update? Why was/were the file(s) updated? When was the file updated? Repeat this section for each dataset, folder or file, as appropriate.>
[YYYY-MM-DD - FILENAME - Description of update and reason.]

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4. METHODOLOGICAL INFORMATION

Methods for collecting/creating data: <Describe how data were created or gathered and include links or references to publications or other documentation used as a base for methodology or containing experimental design or protocols used in data collection. If authors are secondary data users, describe how you or any future users can access the data.>

Methods for processing data: <Describe how the submitted data were generated from the raw or collected data.>

Technical requirements: <Instrument- or software-specific information needed to interpret the data - instrumentation settings for sciences; data analysis software for social sciences; or other information. Include full name and version of software, and any necessary packages or libraries needed to run scripts. Include standards and calibration information, if appropriate.>

Environmental/experimental conditions: <This section is important if the research environment or conditions are relevant to the replication of this dataset. For example, habitat complexity or risk of predation for experiments with animals; or variable rates of pain experienced by patients in a health sciences trial.>

Quality assurance: <If you have completed any processes on the data to ensure data quality, please include them here. This could include measures to ensure data are captured accurately through standardized naming and format conventions; computerized systems validation; data cleaning, and other measures.> 


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5 FILE-SPECIFIC INFORMATION FOR: [FILENAME]
<This section contains information on the contents of your data files, ensuring they are complete and downloaded correctly for data users.>
<Repeat this section for each dataset, folder or file, as appropriate.>

<Quantitative Data>
Number of variables: 
Number of cases/rows: 
Variable List: <list variable name(s), description(s), unit(s), codes or symbols, abbreviations, semantics, codes or symbols, abbreviations, semantics, and value labels as appropriate for each.>
Missing data codes: <list code/symbol and definition>

<Qualitative Data>
Number of pages or length of audio/video:
<If you have a data dictionary or codebook, it may be included here or separately as another file in your dataset.>
List coding structures or tags used, if relevant:

Applied standards, specialized formats, abbreviations used: <FREE SPACE - if there is anything left that will help a user understand your dataset, add it here.