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Data Management

Resources to help you manage, store, and share your data.

What is a DMP?

A data management plan (DMP) is a written document that describes the data you expect to acquire or generate during the course of a research project, how you will manage, describe, analyze, and store those data, and what mechanisms you will use at the end of your project to share and preserve your data.

You may have already considered some or all of these issues with regard to your research project, but writing them down helps you formalize the process, identify weaknesses in your plan, and provide you with a record of what you intend(ed) to do.

Data management is best addressed in the early stages of a research project, but it is never too late to develop a data management plan.

(From Stanford Libraries Data Management Services)

What Goes in a Data Management Plan?

Basic data management plans will contain the following components:

  • description of the project
  • description of the data that will be produced
  • how data will be managed throughout the project
  • documentation about the data, including metadata and format information
  • plan for short-term data storage, backup, and security
  • legal and ethical issues, such as intellectual property, copyright issues, and privacy
  • access, sharing, and reuse of data
  • data retention and disposal arrangements
  • preservation and archiving to ensure the integrity and long-term preservation of the data

(From University of Louisville Data Management Resource Guide)

The components of a DMP are often broken down into the following eight categories:

  • Data Description
  • Format
  • Metadata
  • Ethics and Privacy
  • Storage and Backup
  • Intellectual Property Rights
  • Access and Sharing
  • Archiving and Preservation

(You can obtain more information of each of the above categories from UNLV's Data Management Plan Resource Guide)

Twelve tips for writing a data-management plan

  • Check the research-data requirements of your funding agency and field of research.
  • Go online for help in developing a data-management plan.
  • List the various types of data and research outputs that you expect to produce.
  • Decide what data and research materials require archiving and determine how much storage space you will need.
  • Define appropriate data file formats.
  • Look for data repositories used by your research community or your host institution (see www.re3data.org for examples).
  • Check what data format and structure the chosen archive might request.
  • Provide metadata that allows others to understand, cite and reuse your data files.
  • Make clear how and when your data can be shared with scientists outside your group.
  • If your research involves sensitive data, explain any legal and ethical restrictions on data access and reuse.
  • Assign responsibility for long-term data curation to a suitable office.
  • Revisit your plan frequently and update it if necessary.
(By Quirin Schiermeier, via Data Management Made Simple in Nature, 2018)

Data Management Plan Tools

Tools

The DMPTool is a free, open-source, online application that helps researchers create data management plans. These plans, or DMPs, are now required by many funding agencies as part of the grant proposal submission process. The DMPTool provides a click-through wizard for creating a DMP that complies with funder requirements. It also has direct links to funder websites, help text for answering questions, and resources for best practices surrounding data management.

General Guides

Specialized Guides

(From Princeton University Research Data Management Resource Guide)

Developing Your Data Management Plan with DMPTool

The above video from the University of Louisville offers a simple overview of the DMPTool. Currently, there are no preset templates for Cal Poly Pomona with the DMPTool, so please follow any templates that have been identified by your grant funder.