6 Data Management Plans (DMPs)
We recommend using a data management plan (DMP) as a living document to guide research data management in a project. Besides fulfilling the requirements from the funding agencies for data sharing and publishing, DMPs can be very useful tools to improve efficiency of our research workflow.
6.1 SNSF requirements
The SNSF requires a DMP for approved applications (see SNSF guidelines ). A DMP should give information on the data life cycle. The minimum structure and content that a DMP should provide are shown in the SNSF’s DMP form. The form includes four sections:
Data collection and documentation
Ethics, legal and security issues
Data storage and preservation
Data sharing and reuse.
The DMP remains editable during the entire lifetime of the grant. Its contents can be adapted as the project evolves. Thus, it is recommended to tracking changes and keep control of the versions of this document.
The DMP content can be relatively broad and they are very individual. DMPs should be plausible, suit their project and meet standards by the research community.
6.2 General recommendations for DMPs
Our recommendations are the following:
Use SNSF form-based templates when available.
Include enough details so that this document can accompany the project and be useful to conduct the data-related actions at different stages of the data life cycle (see Open Research Data). A DMP can be a very useful tool for project management.
Update it when changes or deviations from the original plans are needed.
Use version control and track changes.
Share it with collaborators. Within a project, it can be used as an onboarding document and as a sort of project blueprint. When shared outside a project, it can help communities to adopt similar standards and facilitate collaboration and data reuse.
Consult a data steward for inputs when writing a DMP. A data steward or someone in a similar role can help finding DMPs from similar fields, choosing community standards, assessing project’s needs regarding data management and reviewing the DMP’s content so that it is sufficiently detailed
6.3 Selected resources
| Type | Description |
|---|---|
| Examples | DMP examples from UK’s Digital Curation Center |
| Examples | DMP examples by the University of Bern |
| Generator | DMP generator by Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics. It has predefined boxes that will generate a doc with predefined paragraphs. Requires Switch Edu-ID login. Oriented for life sciences |
| Form | SNSF form for DMPs (link to pdf) |
| Form | DMP Data Life-Cycle Management (DLCM) project: form based on SNSF’s template |
| Checklist | Data Life-Cycle Management (DLCM) project: DMP checklist |
| Templates | École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) DMP template - link to pdf |