What is a DMP?
A DMP is a living document that guides your project’s data management activities. It should be updated over time to reflect the realities of the project. It is also a communication tool for your team to ensure that research data is managed appropriately throughout the life of the project.
Specifically, a DMP:
- Describes how the data is to be managed during and after the research project
- Communicates expectations and responsibilities to the project team
- Enables early identification of potential problems (e. g. missing resources, sensitive data requiring protection, etc.)
- Helps identify additional costs or resources needed to manage the data (such as additional storage capacity, etc.)
- Helps you manage your data according to the FAIR principles
Do I need to create a DMP for my project?
As an UiO employee, you are required to create a DMP for your research data (see UiO's Policy and Guidelines). This applies regardless of whether you will collect new data for your project or plan on reusing data from another sources.
Most research funders (e.g. Norwegian Research Council, European Research Council) also require a DMP for projects they fund.
Creating a DMP for your project will also help you in the following areas:
- Save time - by identifying early-stage issues, documentation requirements and time dependencies can help save time and effort
- Security and quality - by having a plan in place you can ensure that security requirements are met and that quality assurance routines are in place
- Impact - managing your data so that it is reusable and reproducible will optimize the impact and visibility of your research
- Collaboration - encourages improvement and validation of research methods
- Compliance - helps ensure data is managed according to the FAIR principles
- Continuity - someone else will be able to continue your research if it becomes necessary
How do I get started with writing a DMP?
First, determine if the funder of your project has any recommendations for templates or tools. If they do, considering using their suggestion. For example, the European Union’s Horizon Europe programme has a specific template that they recommend for their projects.
If there are no specific requirements, you can choose an option from the non-exhaustive list of templates and tools below. Text-based templates are typically more flexible and can be adapted to the needs of your project. Web-based tools may allow you to choose from multiple templates, provide guidance for filling out a plan, be machine-readable, and enable sharing with others in your project. If you need help with choosing a template or tool, feel free to contact us.
Text-based templates for writing DMPs
- UiO's template - Norwegian - English - a simple Word-based template with links to UiO resources
- Horizon Europe template - recommended for use with Horizon Europe projects
- Science Europe DMP template - generic template consisting of six core questions that is often used as the basis of many other templates
Interactive tools and web forms that assist with writing a DMP
- Sikt (formerly NSD) provides a single and easy to use template that is ideal for projects with data about people or society.
- EasyDMP provides multiple templates and is ideal for projects using Sigma2 infrastructure.
- Data Stewardship Wizard is an open source tool that provides advance functionality such as machine actionability and FAIR metrics. It is also recommended for projects using the ELIXIR infrastructure.
- DMPonline and DMPTool are popular generic tools that support multiple templates and can be used with DMPs that will be made openly available in the future
What information do I need to include in a DMP?
The contents of a DMP will vary depending on templates used and the field of study. Usually, one will be asked to information on the following topics:
- Brief information about the research project
- Roles and responsibilities of project participants related to data management
- Descriptions of the datasets that will be used and/or generated in the project, such as:
- What is the sensitivity/security level of the data?
- How the data will be collected or will you be reusing data from another project?
- What file formats and sizes will be collected?
- How data will be organized (e.g. folder structure and file names)
- Where will the data be stored?
- What kinds of documentation and metadata standards that will be created?
- How data quality will be maintained?
- Storage solutions, data security and preservation strategy that will be adopted
- How, when and where data will be shared, published, and made to adhere to the FAIR principles
- Costs and resources needed for data management
- Strategies for responding to ethical and legal requirements (i.e. privacy, intellectual property and licenses)
*This is based on recommendations from "Ten simple rules for creating a good data management plan" by Michener (2015)
Examples of DMPs
- The Digital Curation Center (UK) has provided a list of example DMPs that may be useful.
- You can also see all public DMPs that are registered using Digital Curation Center’s DMPOnline tool but be wary that some will be better than others (dcc.ac.uk)
More resources
- RDMkit is an information resource developed by Elixir Europe
Need advice?
Contact us at: research-data@uio.no