title: Managing clinical research data: software tools for hypothesis exploration.
abstract: Data representation, data file specification, and the communication of data between software systems are playing increasingly important roles in clinical data management. This paper describes the concept of a self-documenting file that contains annotations or comments that aid visual inspection of the data file. We describe access of data from annotated files and illustrate data analysis with a few examples derived from the UNIX operating environment. Use of annotated files provides the investigator with both a useful representation of the primary data and a repository of comments that describe some of the context surrounding data capture.
authors: Duke Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710.
authors: C F
authors: CF
authors: Starmer
authors: M A
authors: MA
authors: Dietz
mesh_terms: D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D012984:Software