A data management plan is a document that outlines the data involved in your project and your plans for collecting, managing, sharing and preserving your data.
You can create a plan for collecting and managing your research data whether it's required for a grant proposal or not. Putting together a plan will allow you to think through the kinds of data you will be collecting and using, and from there the kinds of resources you will need to make sure that your research data is well organized, accessible to the people who need it, and ready to be shared with publications.
What Goes in a Data Management Plan?
Big-Picture Info
The first thing that should go into your plan is big-picture information about your lab, grants, and projects that will put the data into context. What are the lab's goals? What are the plans for this specific project? Who is working on it?
Data Type
The next section should be about the data itself. What kinds of data can you expect to find here? What file formats are they in? How were they/will they be collected? Who will/did collect them? You can also include how much data you plan to collect - this can be in number of files, number of samples, or total space the data is expected to take in bytes/MB/GB/TB.
Metadata and Standards
This section explains how the data will be described, and what essential extra information should be collected along with the data. This can include information like dates and methods. You can also include here information like abbreviations that might be found in the data files, or units for numbers that are recorded. Finally, you should include any standards that you might be following.
Software and Code
This section will include details about any code you have written for collecting or analyzing data (most likely directions to where the code is). It can also include any specialized software that is needed to collect, analyze, or open the data files.
Preservation and Sharing Plans
This section will describe what will happen to the data at the end of the project, usually when any related papers are published. If you are planning to share the data broadly, where will you be sharing it?
Privacy Plans
If you are working with human subjects data, you will need to be mindful of the subjects' privacy. In this section, describe how you will be mindful of HIPAA, FERPA, or GDPR protections. You can also list here data that you can't share, or must restrict sharing to, due to subject privacy. You can also outline any protocols for securely sharing restricted data with other researchers who request it.
DMPTool
DMPTool is an online platform that walks you through creating a data management plan. It includes templates for most of the common funding agencies.
If you have any questions or would like someone to review your DMP, contact rdm@tufts.edu.
Understanding Federal Funding Requirements
In August 2022, the Office of Science & Technology Policy (OSTP) released a memorandum (referred to as the "Nelson Memo") aiming to ensure that all federally-funded research outputs are accessible to the public for free, with no delay upon publication. These outputs include both scholarly publications and scientific data.
Timeline
In response to the 2022 OSTP memo, all grant-awarding federal agencies will need to create or update their public access plans by Dec. 31, 2024. These plans will need to go into effect by Dec. 31, 2025. Over the next 2 years, you may see new data sharing requirements from federal agencies as you are applying for funding. Some agencies that have already updated their public access plans include the NSF and DOE.
What does the OSTP memo mean by "scientific data"?
Scientific data is defined in the 2022 OSTP memo as: “the recorded factual material commonly accepted in the scientific community as of sufficient quality to validate and replicate research findings. Such scientific data do not include laboratory notebooks, preliminary analyses, case report forms, drafts of scientific papers, plans for future research, peer-reviews, communications with colleagues, or physical objects and materials, such as laboratory specimens, artifacts, or field notes.”
How will this memo affect my data?
Under new or upcoming policies, you may be able to include costs associated with “submission, curation, [and] management of data” into your research budget. You may also be asked to write a data management plan as part of your grant application, or to deposit your scientific data into a repository. The specific requirements will depend on the agency from which you are seeking funding.
Browse FAIRsharing.org to find funder and journal-specific policies for data management and sharing. If you need help finding or interpreting a public access plan or data sharing policy from a federal agency, please reach out to rdm@tufts.edu.