Remarks

For research projects, create a dropbox or boxsync folder to share the data and program code with me so that I can check the code. Here is my standard folder structure:

• • ProjectName

    • • analysis

        • • data_orig: To store the original data files

          • data: To store any created data files

          • dofiles: To store do files

          • output: To store any output files

          • log: To store log files

      • manuscript

I strongly recommend to use LaTex, especially for empirical projects. In any empirical analysis, you will modify the specifications many many times, and it will take time and cause errors if you copy and paste the results every time you try the new specifications. By outputting the results of the analysis by latex files, you can make your results in your paper automatically updated. If we use the folder structure above, then you can include the table (suppose the file name is reg1.tex) by

\begin{table}[htbp]

\small

\caption{Table title here}

\begin{center}

\input{../analysis/output/reg1.tex}

\end{center}

\label{t reg1}

Note: The dependent variable is ....

\end{table}

and figures (suppose the file name is fig1.eps) by

\begin{figure}[ht]

\caption{Figure title here}

\center

\includegraphics[width=10cm]{../analysis/output/fig1.eps}

\label{f fig1}

\end{figure}

The table and figure numbering is also automatic. In the text, you can just cite "Table \ref{t reg1}" for citing the table above. You can find the template of the manuscript in my course website.

If you use LaTex, making the reference list is also simple and automatic. For introduction of this function, see this cite. You may also want to download the bibtex package files for economists here. To create a bibliography database, you can just use ideas.repec.org and google scholar. You should make sure that there are no duplication in the database, so order the entry by authors' alphabetical order to ensure this.