Why Do I Need a Data Management Plan?
A Data Management Plan (DMP) is a formal document that outlines what you will do with your data during and after your research project. Most research grant applications require a data management plan. Each agency has slightly different guidance for their data management plan. Information about funding agency requirements can be found on the RDMS website: https://library.usu.edu/data-management/agency-requirements/data_pubs Links to an external site. . Information about data sharing requirements is also available on the RDMS website: https://library.usu.edu/data-management/agency-requirements/data Links to an external site.
Why are data management plans required? Because data are increasingly being seen as a valuable research output for purposes of reproducibility, validity, and peer review. Moreover, federal grants are funded by taxpayer (public) monies. As such, most federal funding agencies have adopted public access requirements for their research grants many of which include requirements to make data available Links to an external site. in addition to depositing research publications.
However, the exact details of these policies vary from agency to agency. While some public access policies require that research data be made available to the public in a timely manner, some do not. Most have a requirement to submit a data management plan that documents how data will be collected, saved, archived, and made available to other researchers and/or the public. It is important to note that PIs will be held accountable for adhering to what is in the DMP.
It is up to the researcher to educate themselves on the requirements of their specific funding agency, but we are here to help! You can get help from the Library and easily find guidance by using the DMPTool, which includes guidance for many of the agencies within the templates they provide. The DMP Tool prompts you to consider what to include in your data management plan.
The next section of this tutorial introduces common concepts used in data management planning. The third section provides a description of the common components of a data management plan. The final section provides an orientation to using the DMPTool.