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Data Management Plans (DMPs) a game plan with a pointed line moving towards an O between two Xs

Data Management Plans (DMPs)

Data Management Plans are used to plan, organize, and document how you’re going to use your data throughout your research project.

Table of Contents

What is a Data Management Plan?

A Data Management Plan (DMP) is a living document describing your plan for how you will manage your research data. As a living document, this will be something you’ll work with as you go through your research process and adapt as things change during your research.

The best time to start making your DMP is at the start of your research. It’s meant to be a proactive process that helps you anticipate and identify opportunities and challenges in managing your data before they emerge, so that you’re under a little less pressure during your research.

A good DMP covers the management of data both during the active phases of your research and after the completion of the research project.

Research almost always a team effort. DMPs are a great way to get on the same page as collaborators. If you’re working as team, discuss and develop your DMP with anyone who will be part of collecting, analyzing, and storing the data: research assistants, coordinators, and other staff. If you’re a graduate student, your supervisor can review and comment on your DMP. If you’re working with research participants, your DMP could be reviewed by community leadership, partner organizations, and the participants themselves–this is especially important for Indigenous research data. Staff who support research can also contribute: RDM professionals, IT units, archivists and librarians, research offices, ethics boards, and more.

Some research funders require grant applicants to submit a DMP. In the US, the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) both require DMPs (or a variant) to be submitted with the grant application. The Wellcome Trust in the UK also requires a DMP, as do a lot of the other European funders. Recently, the Tri-Agency (SSHRC, NSERC, and CIHR)​ has also started requiring DMPs as part of grant applications.

What goes in a Data Management Plan?

Pretty much anything that pertains to your research data will go into your data management plan. More specifically:

Data Collection
  • What types of data will you collect?
  • What file formats will you gather?
  • How will files be version-controlled, organized, and named?
Documentation and Metadata
  • What documentation will help others understand your data in the future?
  • What metadata--data about data--will you collect?
  • What data sets are you using, or what new data will be created?
Storage and Backup
  • How are you going to store and backup your data?
  • How are you going to keep your data secure?
  • If you're working with a research team, how will the team access and contribute data?
Preservation
  • Where will you deposit your data at the end of your research project?
  • How will you ensure data is accessible through preservation-friendly formats?
Sharing and Reuse
  • What data will you share in what form?
  • What license will you use to tell others how they can use it?
  • How will you tell your research community your data exists?
Responsibilities and Resources
  • Who is responsible for managing the data sets?
  • What happens if the person responsible needs to step away or moves?
  • What kind of resources are required to ensure that it’s well managed?
Ethics and Legal Compliance
  • How will sensitive data be managed and access restricted?
  • Do you have a data-sharing agreement that you have to follow?
  • Have you gone through ethics approval?
  • Are there any ethical terms you have to follow regarding your data?

Try this quick quiz - Are the following statements about Data Management Plans (DMPs) true or false?

DMP Assistant

The best way to build a Data Management Plan is to use DMP Assistant.

DMP Assistant is a web-based data management planning tool that’s available to all researchers in Canada for free.

After making an account and logging in to the website, DMP Assistant will ask you a series of questions about your data management practices. By answering these questions, you are essentially filling in and creating your data management plan.

The website offers lots of data management guidance and links, including McMaster-specific guidance on what kind of resources are available to you here. At the end, you’re able to export your document into a PDF document, a Word document, or just about any other format you’d like.

You can also add collaborators or other researchers to the site so that you can work on the DMP together.

DMP Assistant interface - login screen

To check out DMP Assistant, you can go to https://assistant.portagenetwork.ca/.

McMaster RDM Services has developed a “McMaster General Purpose DMP Template” which has specific guidance for services and resources at our university. Just click the “Write Plan” button and click on the “Comments and Guidance” sidebar in each section.

DMP Assistant interface - What file formats will your data be collected in? Will these formats allow for data reuse, sharing, and preservation? Comments and guidance boxes are on the right-hand side

We also offer a full workshop on Data Management Plans and using DMP Assistant. You can find that here: https://scds.github.io/intro-rdm/dmp.html.

Key Points / Summary

  • DMPs are living documents that should be used and updated regularly throughout the entirety of the project’s life cycle.
  • Some research funders require applicants to submit a DMP.
  • DMPs should address how data will be managed during and after the project, including Data Types and Data Collection, Documentation and Metadata, Storage and Backup, Preservation, Sharing and Reuse, Responsibilities and Resources, and Ethics and Legal Compliance
  • DMP Assistant has a McMaster General Purpose DMP Template with McMaster-specific advice and available resources in the “Guidance” sidebar.

Additional Resources