Creating a plan that describes how data will be managed and shared throughout the course of a research project is an important step in ensuring that you, your collaborators, and potentially other researchers can find and use your data.
Many research funding agencies have begun to require data management plans (DMPs), formal documents that specify how researchers plan to manage and share the data associated with a project, be submitted as part of grant proposals.
However, a DMP created as part of a grant application is really just the beginning. Your plan, as it is actually applied in the course of your research, can be more like a set of standard operating procedures that are put into practice by you and your collaborators. This page provides information about creating both DMPs for grant proposals and data-related plans to be shared with your research team.
Remember that, while it is important to create a plan, it is equally important that your plan is up-to-date and communicated to everyone involved in managing and sharing your data. The video below illustrates what can happen when a research team doesn't have a data management plan. Many data management issues can be handled easily or avoided entirely by planning ahead.
Funding agencies, including the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) have laid out specific criteria for what should be included in a data management plan.
The table below outlines similar requirements for the National Institutes of Health, that are set to go into effect in 2023. If you would like assistance completing a data management plan for a grant proposal, please contact your liaison librarian to schedule a 1-1 consultation.
A description of the scientific data to be managed, preserved, and shared. This should include both a general summary of the types and the estimated amount of scientific data to be generated and/or used in the research and also a description of which scientific data from the project will be preserved and shared.
Plans and timelines for data preservation and access. This includes the name of the repository(ies) where scientific data and metadata arising from the project will be archived, how the scientific data will be findable and identifiable, and when the scientific data will be made available to other users.
Because different funding agencies have different requirements for their data management plans, it can be helpful to use a tool like DMPTool. Created by a group of institutions led by the California Digital Library, DMPTool is designed to help researchers create high-quality DMPs that meet the requirements of their specific funding agency. Because we are an affiliated institution, Stanford researchers can sign into DMPtool using their SUNet ID.
The DMPTool can:
