Guides: Scholarly Communication & Institutional Repository: Data Management Services

Data Management Plan?

How to avoid a data management nightmare, by Karen Hanson, Kevin Read & Alisa Surkis, New York University Health Sciences Library. Creative Commons Licence CC-BY (Attribution, reuse allowed)

This 4:40 minute video case study walks through what can go wrong without a plan and standards.

Why do you need a data management plan?

To ensure that your data will be accessible and usable in the future - by you and by others.
Create and maintain a permanent archive of the data that supports your research findings.
To meet publisher and/or funding agency requirements for data availability.

What is in a data management plan?

Description of the types of data that will be collected or produced (eg. survey results, lab tests, samples, physical objects, manuscripts, computer log files.
Plan for collecting & storing (short & long-term) your data, and backup copies.
Standards you will use for your data collection and how you will describe your data (metadata). For example, if you have a team doing field measurements, your data plan will include methods for how your team will record the same measurements. See "How to avoid a data management nightmare" video for an example of how this can go wrong.
Policies for sharing, accessing, and re-using your data, including provisions for privacy, confidentiality, security, intellectual property, or other rights or requirements.
Methods for archiving and preserving your data.

What is Metadata?

Metadata is the information that describes and documents research data. Metadata will make your datasets searchable in an archive or repository, easily locatedfrom a citation, and easily understood by people who might want to use your data. There are many metadata elements that you should consider when describing and documenting your research data, including:

Title
Creator (Principal Investigators)
Date Created (also versions)
Format
Subject
Unique Identifier (ex. doi)
Description of the specific data resource
Coverage of the data (spatial or temporal)
Publishing organization
Type of resource
Rights (ethics/legal/etc)
Funding or Granting Agency

Metadata Standards

Metadata standards or schemas consist of specific elements used to describe or document your data. Some disciplines have established metadata standards. In addition, some data repositories have their own standards. There are also several general-purpose schemas that you can adapt to fit your needs. Below are some metadata standards:

Why Cite Data?

Citing your data sources will allow researchers to easily locate research data for study and/or repurposing and ensures that the original producers of the data are credited in citation indexes.

Data Citation

Policies and Guidelines

Tri-Agency Government of Canada

Tri-Agency Statement of Principles on Digital Data Management
SSHRC Research Data Archiving Policy
Access to Research Results: Guiding Principles
CIHR Open Access Policy

Sections 1 and 5.1.2.

Journal Requirements

Some journals may require you to share your data as a condition of publication. Often, data sharing policies can be found in the "Instructions for Authors" or "Author Guidelines." Some journals may provide a list of repositories, but if not, contact us for assistance.

Some examples of data-sharing policies are below:

Nature: Availability of data, material and methods
Springer Nature: Research Data Policies and Services
Wiley: Wiley's Data Sharing Service

Write a Data Management Plan

The Portage Network has developed a tool called the DMP Assistant to help researchers prepare data management plans. The DMP Assistant is a bilingual tool that can help you prepare a good data management plan (DMP). It will take you step-by-step through a number of key questions about data management. To get started:

Create an account: https://assistant.portagenetwork.ca/
Sign in and select a template. There are several templates available to use - the "Portage" template is an all-inclusive template that should address your data management requirements.
Answer the questions - examples, and guidance are provided. You can share your plan so others can work on it also.
Export or print your plan, or revise and revisit the plan throughout your research.

DMP Assistant Video Tutorial

A short, 4-minute video on how to use the DMP Assistant.n

The DMP Assistant will guide you through important questions to consider, which may include but are not limited to the following:

Data Collection:
What types of data will you collect, create, link to, record, etc? What file formats? How will you structure, name and version-control files?
Documentation and Metadata:
What documentation and metadata (description of the data) will be used? Are you using a metadata standard?
Storage and Backup:
What are the anticipated storage requirements? How and where will data be stored and backed up?
Preservation:
Where will you deposit your data for long-term preservation at the end of your research project? What about preservation-friendly file formats, supporting documentation, etc?
Sharing and Reuse:
What data will you be sharing and in what form? What type of end-user license do you want to include with your data?
Responsibilities and Resources:
Who will be responsible for managing this project's data during and after the project? What happens if substantive changes happen in the personnel overseeing the project's data?
Ethics and Legal Compliance:
How will you manage legal, ethical and intellectual property issues? If your research project contains sensitive data, how will you ensure that it is securely managed and only accessible to approved members of the project?
Coastal Change Analysis Program Regional Land Cover
Arthropod responses to grassland nutrient limitation
Effects of temperature and salinity on population growth of the estuarine copepod, Eurytemora affinis
Rio Grande Basin Hydrologic Geodatabase Compendium
Atmospheric CO 2 Concentrations, 2011 2013