Research Guides: Data Management: Writing a Data Management Plan

DMP Tool

DMP Tool is a service from the University of California Curation Center that helps you create a data management plan. You will need to create an account on the site to use the step-by-step guide.

ACRL Primer for Protecting Sensitive Data in Academic Research

This primer provides a quick grounding in the whats, whys, and hows of current regulations and practices for protecting sensitive data.

A Data Management Plan Includes...

Description of types of data, samples, and physical collections you will be creating.
Standards you will use for your data and the metadata that will describe it.
Policies for sharing, accessing, and re-using your data.
Methods for archiving and preserving your data.

Data Plan Outlines and Examples

DataOne Plans and Checklists
Data Management Planning (Data Conservancy)
DMP Self-Assessment Tool (Purdue)
Creating a Data Management Plan (University of Minnesota)
Data Management Plans (Rice University)
Digital Data Management, Curation and Archiving (University of New Mexico)
Data Management Plan (MIT)

Data Management Checklist

Contact your liaison librarian to schedule a consultation for assistance with writing a data management plan. The following questions will help you think about how best to manage your data and how to prepare the content of your data management plan.

Data Production	What type(s) of data will be produced? What file format(s) will the data be saved as? Are those file formats proprietary? Will they degrade? Will the data be reproducible? Do you need tools or software to create/process/visualize the data?
Data Size	How much data will it be, and at what growth rate? How often will it change?
Data Usage	Who will potentially be using your data both now and later?
Data Retention	How long should it be retained? (e.g. 3-5 years, 10-20 years, permanently)
Privacy and Security	Any special privacy or security requirements? (e.g., personal data, high-security data)
Data Sharing	Any sharing requirements? (e.g., funder data sharing policy) Have you chosen a repository in which to archive your data?
Data Management Plan	Does your funding agency require a data management plan in the grant proposal?
Data Documentation	How will you be documenting your data and project? What directory and file naming convention will be used? What project and data identifiers will be assigned? Is there a schema, ontological, or other metadata standard in your field for sharing data with others?
Storage and Backup	What are the strategies for storage and backup of the data?
Publication	When and where will the work be published?
Responsibility	Who in the research group will be responsible for data management? Who controls the data (PI, student, lab, CSB and SJU, funder)?