Thing 15: Data management plans

Some research institutions and research funders now require researchers to submit a Data Management Plan (DMP) for new projects. What should a DMP cover? Could you help with one?

Find out about the work of the Australasian DMP Interest Group

Getting started 

An introduction to Data Management Plans

A Data Management Plan (DMP) documents how data will be managed, stored and shared during and after a research project. Some research funders are now requesting that researchers submit a DMP as part of their project proposal.

  1. Start by scanning this short introduction to Data Management Plans
  2. Now browse through some public DMPs from either  the CDL or DataOne, and open up one or two of the DMPs to see the type of information they capture:

Consider: You will have noticed that DMPs can be very short, or extremely long and complex. What do you think are the two or three pieces of information essential to include in every DMP and why?

Learn more

Templates for Data Management Plans

Imagine if the information contained in a DMP could flow across other systems automatically (e.g. to populate faculty profiles, monitor grants, notify repositories of data in the pipeline) and reduce administrative burdens. 

What if DMPs were part of active research workflows, and served to connect researchers with tailored guidance and resources at appropriate points over the course of a project?

Machine actionable DMPs will help make this possible. Machine-actionable “refers to information that is structured in a consistent way so that machines, or computers, can be programmed against the structure” (DDI definition).

  1. Read up on how the international community is re-thinking DMPs in the White paper on machine-actionable Data Management Plans. This White Paper is long, but incredibly rich - scroll down for lots of use-cases, interoperability, data discovery and more.
  2. Take a look at a European perspective on Australia’s tools for creating and integrating DMPs in the blog post DMP Inspiration Down Under, and see what lessons we can learn from Europe in this Webinar from Sarah Jones of the Digital Curation Centre.

Consider: Do you think machine-actionable DMPs will make them more valuable to researchers? Institutions? Funders?

Challenge me 

Data Management Plans for the Humanities

  1. First have a look at the The DMPTool: A Brief Overview 90 sec video to see what the DMPTool offers researchers and institutional data managers
  2. Then read this blog about how the Digital Curation Centre UK (DCC) and University of California Curation Centre (UCCC) have joined forces to create a new tool, called DMPRoadmap.
  3. Next browse the DMPRoadmap development wiki on GitHub.

Consider: The DMPRoadmap project is aiming to enable DMP’s to be active, dynamic, machine-readable and FAIR. Can you suggest additional goals or further enhancements?

Find out about the work of the Australasian DMP Interest Group

Do you have a question? Want to share a resource?

Keep on going to the next thing: What are publishers & funders saying about data? or return to all the things