oHA3: One Column Name to Rule Them All: Can we agree on how to Label Participant Identifier Columns in our Datasets?
Hayward Godwin, Peter Darch, Giovanna C. Del Sordo, Erin Buchanan
A major challenge with reusing shared datasets is the naming conventions used for columns in those datasets. Reuse, as part of FAIR principles, is made more difficult by the paucity of metadata provided alongside datasets, often leaving researchers to guess what data is contained in different columns. Recent work has found substantial variability even for commonly-used column identifiers. Here, we will work collaboratively, cataloguing datasets from the published literature in an effort to find a simple starting point to solve this issue. Following the Psych-DS project, which has developed a standard for organising data files, together we will work to develop recommendations for what researchers should use to refer to the most common column across all Psychology datasets: namely, the participant identifier column. From this starting point we can then, beyond the session, work together to create standards and recommendations for column naming conventions across the discipline.