Data Management Planning
Do you require a Data Management Plan as part of your funding application?
- Many research funders require data management plans or 'technical appendices' to be incorporated into a grant application. See the funder policy pages if you're not sure.
- Producing a data management checklist will help you assess what your requirements are.
- A checklist will act as an aid if you need to create a data management plan, and even where this is not the case, a checklist can save you time, by helping you consider potential issues associated with storage, backup, metadata, copyright, IP, ethical issues, best formats for data creation, access and control, any sharing requirements, and long-term preservation.
Links to further information and resources
- Data Management Plans is an interactive online training module from the MANTRA Project.
- The University of Cambridge’s research data management Web pages offer a section on Data Management Planning
- Help with Data Management Planning is a set of guides from the University of Bristol, outlining the expectations of the seven Research Council UK funding agencies regarding data management plans.
- Start Early is a brief introductory PowerPoint presentation on data management planning from the PrePARe Project at the University of Cambridge.
Subject-specific guidance
- Social Sciences: Planning for Sharing is a set of advice pages from the UK Data Archive, aimed at researchers working in the social sciences and some humanities disciplines. Teaching materials for a classroom-based course on Data Management Planning are also available.
- Creative Arts: Unit 2 of the CAiRO Project’s self-study materials provides an introduction to the issues that should be considered before embarking on a research project in the creative arts, including rights and permissions.
- Archaeology: The Archaeology Data Service’s Guides to Good Practice include a section on Planning for the Creation of Digital Data.
- Archaeology: Module 2 of the DataTrain Archaeology teaching materials provides an introduction to data lifecycles and data management planning for this subject area. Module 7 deals specifically with postgraduate data management plans.
- Rural Economy and Land Use: The Relu Programme’s Planning page provides a data management plan template and examples.
- Health-Related Disciplines: Session 1 of the DATUM for Health teaching materials gives an overview of research data management (and why it’s important) and data management planning.