Documents are very rarely written by a single person in one sitting. More often, several people will be involved in the process, and it will take place over an extended period of time. Without proper procedures, this can quickly lead to confusion about which version is the most recent. Here’s a suggestion on how to avoid this:

Use a revision numbering system. Significant changes to a file can be indicated with whole numbers, for example, v01 corresponds to the first version, while v02 corresponds to the second. Minor changes can be indicated by increasing the decimal figure, for example, v01_01 indicates a minor change made to the first version, and v03_01 indicates a minor change made to the third version.

When draft documents are sent for revisions, upon their return they should include additional information to identify the person who made the changes. Example: a file named datav01_20130806_SJ indicates that a colleague (SJ) made changes to the first version on August 6, 2023. The main author will then incorporate those changes into version v01 and rename the file following the revision numbering system.

Include a 'version control table' for each important document, noting changes and their respective dates next to the appropriate version number of the document. If useful, you can also include the filenames along with (or instead of) the version number.

Decide who will handle the final versions and mark them as ‘final’.