What is a data management plan and why is it important?

A data management plan is a document that describes what data will be created during a research project; how it will be created; procedures for ensuring consistency and data quality; what software and formats will be used; how and where the data will be shared; and who is responsible for creating, managing, storing, and sharing the data.

Writing a data management plan (or DMP) at the outset of a research project allows researchers to...

• Make informed decisions to anticipate and avoid problems
• Avoid duplication, data loss, and security breaches
• Develop procedures early on for consistency
• Ensure data are accurate, complete, reliable, and secure

What does a data management plan include?

The main components of a DMP often include the following:

1. Information about data and data format
2. Metadata content and format
3. Policies for access, sharing, and re-use
4. Long-term storage and data management
5. Roles and responsibilities
6. Budget

How do you create a data management plan?

• Writing your Data Management and Sharing Plan at UB
• DMPTool - UB is now a partner institution on this template-based platform, hosted by the University of California Curation Center (new window) of the California Digital Library. You can log in with your UBITName to write and store your data management plans, as well as view and use templates for each funder.
  • NOTE: This tool is for creating and managing your data management plans at the grant proposal stage, not for storing your research data or publications. The UB Institutional Repository is the platform for storing data and publications resulting from your research.
     
• Write a Data Management Plan (MIT) - Data Management at MIT offers a concise definition of elements needed in a data management plan and an excellent list of resources/tools for developing the plan.
   
• Checklist for a Data Management Plan (DCC) - This checklist (v4.0 updated in 2014) was created by the Digital Curation Centre in Edinburgh. It provides an overview of the questions to consider when writing a data management plan, especially for compliance with U.K. and E.U. funders.

SPARC: Browse Data Sharing Requirements by Federal Agency

In addition to requirements for a data management plan, a February 2013 White House policy directive mandated the public release of research data (open data) for nearly all research funded by the federal government. Since 2013, the agencies have been working on issuing mandatory open data compliance policies.

SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) together with Johns Hopkins University hosts this community resource for tracking, comparing, and understanding U.S. federal funder research data sharing policies.

// This is the required verbiage if you plan to use the UB Institutional Repository (UBIR) for your data storage. You can copy & paste the below three paragraphs for the "Data Management and Maintenance" or "Data Storage" section of your DMP. Section titles may vary from funder to funder. Please note this verbiage updates as university policies change. If you have any questions about this verbiage or need to alter it in any way for your DMP, please contact Karlen Chase, Head of Institutional Repository Services, klchase@buffalo.edu //

"Data and corresponding descriptive metadata will be deposited and stored in the University at Buffalo Institutional Repository (UBIR). The institutional repository is managed by the University Libraries and contains a variety of digital objects and handles all file formats. It serves as a central, permanent data repository and is supported by university enterprise-level backup. UBIR houses both public and private collections; the public collections are available to the general public via the internet. The repository collects, preserves, and distributes UB's research and scholarship. This institutional repository is a group of collections of full-text articles, full-text reports, audio files, video files, images and datasets produced by UB researchers and students.

Items in UBIR are assigned a persistent URL known as a handle, which is part of the Handle.Net registry. All public items in UBIR are discoverable via Google Search and Google Scholar.

Prior to UBIR submission, the project team must make all files comply with the University at Buffalo's Electronic and Information Technology Accessibility Policy. The project team is then responsible for submitting files and describing those files with Dublin Core metadata to UBIR specifications. Once project files have been submitted to UBIR, the University Libraries will be responsible for long-term data storage and UBIR system maintenance."