What you Need to Know Before Writing a Data Management Plan
1. Begin by gathering information from relevant institutional services as required.
- Information Technology can provide you with information about institutional storage, backups and costs. They may also know of good options and make recommendations.
- Scholarly Communication Library Services can help with issues related to licensing data, repositories, possible metadata standards and with preserving your data.
- The Research Office will likely know of any new requirements by funding agencies.
2. If you have co-researchers you will need to consult with them to define:
- Who owns the data.
- Who needs to have access to different data sets.
- What licenses should be applied to data.
- Who will manage different responsibilities.
3. This guide will supply you with some of the foundational information you will need including:
4. There is external help in the form of:
5. Be prepared to Justify your Decisions
- Funders tend not to specify particular file formats, standards or methodologies that you are expected to use. You need to choose and demonstrate that the selections made are the most appropriate for your context, that of your discipline and future users.
- Similarly, you need to present a convincing case for any restrictions on data sharing.
6. Be prepared to Implement your plan
- Funders want to see that you understand their requirements and have realistic plans in place to meet these.
- The description of planned work should be clear and achievable so markers can feel confident that you understand the options and will be able to deliver what is proposed.
- Clearly defined roles and responsibilities add weight to your plans so be explicit about who will do what, how and when.
7. Help is Available
