Research Guides: Research Data Management: Create & Implement a Data Management Plan

What is a data management plan?

A data management plan (DMP) describes how you will manage your research data throughout its lifecycle, from collecting it to archiving and sharing it. Creating a data profile beforehand will help you determine your dataset's needs and potential issues, which you will address in your DMP.

DMP's can range from one page to many detailed pages, depending partly on your needs, your funder's requirements, and/or a data repository's requirements.

DMP Elements and Best Practices

Suggested Elements for a Data Management Plan (DOE)
Brief overview of what a DMP covers, from the Department of Energy.
Write a data management plan
List of DMP sections and considerations, from MIT Libraries.
Create a Data Management Plan
A general DMP outline, from University of Oregon Libraries.
Research Data Management Best Practices
Covers all aspects of the data lifecycle, from University of Oregon Libraries.

Example DMPs

UC San Diego Sample NSF Data Management Plans
Includes examples across disciplines.
Example Data Management Plans
Example DMPs for biology and chemistry, from the New England Collaborative Data Management Curriculum.
Data Management Plan Examples
Example DMPs across multiple disciplines, from the University of Minnesota.
Data Management Plan Examples (NCSU)
Full DMP examples, as well as examples of text from specific DMP sections, from NCSU.
Sample Data Management Plan for Depositing Data with ICPSR
ICPSR promotes data access in the social sciences.

DMP Tools and Resources

Boston Univeristy Data Services Guides
Covers DMPs, metadata, naming conventions, citing data, selecting a repository, and more.
DMPTool
A free online tool for building data management plans.
Funder Requirements
DMP requirements and templates for different funders, from DMPTool.

Managing Your Working Data

Organization and Documentation
Best practices for data, from The Ohio State University Libraries--including file naming, formats, versioning, and metadata.
File management
From Cornell University

Describing Your Data: Metadata Standards

Metadata standards can help you decide how and to what extent to describe your actual data files. Metadata standards may be general or subject-specific.

Metadata and describing data
A brief description of metadata and short list of metadata standards, from Cornell.
Disciplinary Metadata
Metadata standards sorted by discipline, from the Digital Curation Centre (UK).

Archiving and Sharing Your Data: Data Repositories

Submitting your data to a data archive can help address long-term preservation needs and funder requirements, as well as facilitate reuse and allow for your data to be cited.

re3data.org
An international registry of research data repositories. Searchable, and browsable by subject, content type, and country.
Data repositories
List of repositories and databases for open data, by discipline, from Simmons University.

3-2-1 Rule of Data Preservation

A handy rule of thumb for longer-term preservation:

3: Make 3 copies.
2: Store them on 2 different types of media.
1: Keep 1 in a different location.