Data Management Plans (DMP)

In order to comply with the principles of good scientific practice, numerous aspects of research data management should be sufficiently considered and addressed at the very beginning of research work. These aspects include, among others, the documentation of the data, their archiving, the long-term availability after the completed research work as well as the clarification of the responsibilities and duties of the participating scientists.

Recommendations for preparing a data management plan (DMP):

The following points present the essence of a data management plan:

Inspired by: WissGrid, RDM University of Oxford

1. Description of the project

General information on the planned project such as goals, funding, and duration

2. Existing types of data

Description of existing data that can be reused for the project and how their integration could look

3. Data to be created in the project

Details on the types of data and formats and the estimated amount of data that will be used and created, along with further information on the process of creating the data and quality assurance (such as documentation and validation measures)

4. Data organisation

Details on consistent data organization within the project (e.g. for data storage, data names, synchronization, versioning, and other collaboration workflows)

5. Administrative and legal aspects:

• Funding and legal requirements: Taking account of the funders’ and data providers’ requirements and complying with policies (e.g. on data storage in repositories, selecting data)
• Copyright/Data owner: Defining who is interested in the created data
• Access and use: Defining access rights and target groups as well as specifying reuse restrictions (both technical and organizational)
• Data protection: Ensuring data protection for sensitive and personal data and taking account of obligations towards third parties
• Data security and backup: Defining how data protection will be ensured and giving details on the backup strategy

6. Archiving, sharing, and publishing data

Which data will be shared? How will data be shared? Information on the planned interoperability with external discipline-specific data services

7. Responsibilities and duties

How are the responsibilities for data management defined and distributed within the project?

8. Costs and resources

Reports on the costs and the personnel expenditure for maintaining the data management plan and running costs for data curation, production of metadata, archiving, etc.