Data acquisition during the research process

The process accompanying data acquisition over the entire course of a research project divides the data transfer into smaller units. The transfer of the units takes place optimally close to the time of creation. This prevents loss of information, distributes the effort to the most suitable points in time and thus minimizes the additional effort for documentation and data transfer. For example, certain metadata can be transferred at an early stage. Thus, the compilation of information for sampling and data collection at the earliest possible point in time usually requires the least effort. Data preparation and documentation steps such as anonymization only make sense after the data collection, but even here a transfer usually makes more effort if the information/metadata is only compiled at the end.