Good documentation practices

Psychophysiology laboratories have very different data structures and demands than other types of psychological laboratories. Generally speaking, each study should contain folders for:
Data
- Raw, important processed stages, data processing scripts such as .m file backup, compiled data, final data
Insitutional Review Board Compliance
- Submissions, revisions, letters of approval, up-to-date informed consent
Scripts
- Electronic questionnaires, up-to-date DMDX scripts, backup of stimuli if size reasonable
Publication
- Poster presentations, papers being prepared, final drafts of accepted/published papers

The data folder should contain enough information to quickly reconstruct important phases of data processing without storing too many large files on the computer indefinitely. Every data folder should include is a "notes.txt" file, where you note abnormalities for particular subjects and files to enable quick reconstruction of data sets. For example, if a person becomes ill and withdraws from the study, it will be much easier to find this noted in a single file than to start searching to understand why the last two test conditions are missing to make decisions about data inclusion/exclusion.