Data Management and Open Data

A data management plan describes the data you use in your research and describes how you plan to store and share your data. Data management plans are often required by funding institutions.

 Data management plans should include:

• description of the type of data that will be created,
• the format of the data and the metadata that will be used to describe it,
• methods for archiving and preserving the data,
• policies for accessing the data, and
• plans for releasing or terminating the data in the longterm.

The DMP Tool is an interactive tool for drafting data management plans that walks you through the process of creating a plan for a variety of funding agencies and institutions.

Most funding agencies require open data or data sharing, or the very least, at least a data management plan. These mandates usually apply only to scientific data and explicitly exclude personally identifiable information. Some open data policies also identify pre-approved repositories and sometimes require that specific repositories must be used.

These policies are often updated at irregular intervals. Because of this, the best way to discover what the current requirements are for any funding agency is to use one of the resources listed below