For your research to be represented or analyzed on a map, you will need a label and coordinates for a map. Then, depending on your source, its context, and what you hope to communicate, you will most likely need to structure additional information.
Some questions to consider before and while you structure and revise your data:
What do you want your map to display?
What columns do you need to organize your data?
What columns do you need to add to include supporting information?
What data will be visible to the end user?
Is your data consistent?
Creating a file
If you have not already, you will want to organize your data in a plain text file, such as a .csv or .json file, or with a platform that easily outputs a .csv file, such as Google Sheets or Airtable. While Excel will also do this, it can sometimes scramble your data (especially dates), so we advise that you choose an alternative to Excel for preparing a .csv to use for mapping.
The remainder of this guide will assume you are creating a .csv file to build your map. Even if you are using a different file type, you can find helpful considerations, suggestions, and tools to review in the remainder of the guide.
Adding or refining descriptive location information
Are you mapping a city? A state? A building? A river? A park? A historic neighborhood? You get the idea. You will probably need to add a column or multiple columns to facilitate the addition of coordinates to your data, especially if you plan to use one of the geocoding tools shared later in this guide. A street address or a well-formatted place name is known as descriptive location information and will allow you to more efficiently add coordinates later.
Be sure to be consistent in however you add geographic information. If you are using an address as your descriptive location information, you can either use one column or multiple columns.
Whether using street addresses or place names like cities or towns, include information like the state and even country. It is up to you if you want one column or multiple columns to include this information. Just make sure you are consistent.
Adding labels and other display information
You may want your map to include other information that can be incorporated as a label, a popup, a legend, or an information card. You can include this information in your .csv file to make it easier to populate this information and move your file between platforms.
Adding coordinates/geocoding
Latitude and longitude coordinates are an essential addition to your textual data to ensure you can represent your text with points on a map. Often, digital map makers will add separate latitude and longitude columns to their spreadsheet. Despite some mapping platforms preferring a combined latitude and longitude coordinate column, this guide recommends separate columns. If you are manually copying or entering coordinates, be careful not to transpose numbers or leave out a minus sign. This may place your location on the other side of the globe.
The process of adding coordinates to your data is often called geocoding. The next page will more broadly outline geocoding, as well as offer guidelines for two tools that may assist you.