A Data Management Plan (DMP) is a written living document that formally outlines what you will do with your research data during the course of your research project and afterwards. At any time that your research plans change, you should review your DMP in order to make sure that the plan still satisfies your essential data needs. It’s important to manage your data for many reasons.
It is best to create a DMP in the early stages of the research cycle in order to avoid many data management issues.
Several funding agencies both federal and private require a DMP with every funding application.
SPARC, which stands for Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition, has assembled a great resource about data management and data sharing requirements from all of the federal funding agencies.
Examples of Federal Funding Agencies that Require Data Sharing or a DMP:
An extension of the NSF Data Sharing Policy requires all applicants to submit a DMP with their funding request. Non-compliance could lead to award rejection.
Requires applicants to share their research findings and noncompliance can lead to award delays.
This tool provides ample guidance on how to design a DMP for your specific type of research project and for your specific type of funding agency including ones from:
The DMPTool will help cater your DMP to the needs/requirements of a specific funding agency. In general, it is important to consider these things when writing a DMP:
MIT has great DMP questions that help guide the design of your respective DMP.
UCLA has a great DMP template to assist you with your DMP planning and design.
