Next Steps to Take
Kim Arranges a Consult - and Updates her Resume!
Kim is finished writing the DMP for Dr. Smart's grant proposal application. Her next steps are to ask the librarian responsible for reviewing DMPs with researchers to look it over and provide feedback. She also will contact the liaison/subject librarian for her discipline to seek additional comments on the DMP. Dr. Smart is thrilled with her contribution and tells Kim that now that she has written a DMP, she should list this experience on her resume. Scientists who know how to plan for, and manage, research data will be in high demand!
Essentially, a DMP is a description of how you will collect, manage, document, preserve and share your data. The DMP can save you time and effort down the road. Not only is it required by many funding agencies, a good DMP can also help improve your chances of getting a grant. A data management plan is a useful tool for any researcher.
The last part of this tutorial reviews the main points to remember in writing a DMP.
Key Take-Away Points
A DMP tells how a researcher will keep track of data for future access and preservation during the course of the research project being proposed. If you are applying to the NSF for funding, then consult the website of the directorate or division for the grant program; some NSF directorates and divisions have more focused guidelines for the DMP.
It's highly recommended that you consult with the University Libraries on the DMP; this is so we have knowledge of the project, can plan ahead if necessary, and can review the DMP prior to submission. Email l-data-mgmt@lists.psu.edu [2] and a librarian will get back to you in response to your inquiry.
The following lists what a DMP needs to address:
- The types of data to be collected or produced during the project, and the processes or methodology for doing so
- Discuss what kind of data will be generated (e.g., sample, specimen, observational, simulation, etc.) and how (methods)
- The formats for the data and the standards that will be followed for documenting and describing the data
- Describe what formats the data will take (e.g., text files, numerical, multimedia, software/code, discipline-specific formats, etc.) and what standards will be used (could be a generic standard, such as Dublin Core element set, or could be a standard prescribed by your research community)
- The availability of the data, including information about ways in which the data will be accessed, and whether there are any issues related to privacy and/or intellectual property
- If your project will be generating sensitive data, then special measures need to be taken to restrict access and use; this is similar for data on patent-pending projects
- Confirm whether IRB approval and consent forms are needed; if so, then the DMP should mention these.
- The guidelines, procedures, or policies for data reuse and/or redistribution, attribution, as well as for creation of derivatives from the data
- Just as it's important to restrict data if it is sensitive, it is important to be clear about uses of data when they are shared - are derivatives allowed, for example?
- The measures that will be taken to help ensure the long-term preservation of, and access to, the data- including possible mention of factors such as form
- Ensuring that the data from your project are preserved - and thus made accessible on an ongoing basis - means implementing a distributed approach to storing the data for the duration of the project and depositing your data to a repository (search for a repository relevant to your data in DataBib), for broader sharing.
- In the absence of a disciplinary repository for your data, consider depositing your data to ScholarSphere [3], Penn State's repository service.
Creating a data management plan does not need to take a lot of time and can be very beneficial to you as a researcher. As Dr. Stephenson describes, DMPs are useful in the long run.
Help Getting Started
Contact Information for DMP Consultations & Data Guidance
The University Libraries offer help with data management planning, including a review of DMPs for a grant proposal and guidance on best practices for managing research data. Please use the contact information below to get in touch when you are seeking help:
Data Management List (coordinated by librarians to address DMP review requests): l-data-mgmt@lists.psu.edu [2]
Patricia Hswe, Digital Content Strategist and Head, ScholarSphere User Services: phswe@psu.edu [5] | 814-867-3702
Ways to Get Started
- Contact the librarian who is in your field to start a conversation about data and DMPs - find out by consulting this list [6].
- ExploreScholarSphere [3] as a service for making your data accessible and preserved for the long term.
- Needing a presentation on data management planning or on ScholarSphere? Contact Patricia Hswe, phswe@psu.edu [5].
- Looking for guidance in the context of Penn State's research administration guidelines and policies? You might find this resource [7] helpful.
- The Libraries also provide boilerplate language [8] that you can enhance in accordance to your needs and insert in your DMP. Please let us know if you use it, however, so we can keep track of researcher needs.
- Try out the DMPTool [9] the next time you need to write a data management plan. Remember, you'll still need to review the plan that is generated after you fill in all the parts of the DMP and make sure it isn't more than two pages in total.
- Seeking a disciplinary data repository service through which to share your data? Explore DataBib [10], a curated registry of data repositories.
Thank you!
Thank you for reviewing the DMP tutorial. We welcome suggestions and other feedback.
Please share your thoughts with use at theUniversity Libraries Publishing and Curation Services [11].