Theses and Dissertations Collection

Data collection is an important step in the scientific process with much of a researcher’s time and funding spent on collecting the necessary data to understand their field of study. Unfortunately, after the data collection is complete, data often is not made available to other researchers. In order to promote reproducible research as well as re-use of existing data, there is growing trend of data sharing. Documentation is one of the important aspects of data sharing which is used to aid in the understanding and reuse of shared data. The importance of what type of documentation to include for secondary analysis is vital especially documentation about the design of the study. This thesis analyzes what design elements are the most important to include in this documentation for making data more reproducible and reusable for secondary analysis.