Data Management Plans (DMP)¶
“A data management plan or DMP is a formal document that outlines how data are to be handled both during a research project, and after the project is completed.[1] The goal of a data management plan is to consider the many aspects of data management, metadata generation, data preservation, and analysis before the project begins; this may lead to data being well-managed in the present, and prepared for preservation in the future.”
(Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_management_plan)
Why bother?
Stick: You have to make one
Reviewers definitely look at them, but they may not be enforced.
- Carrot: Make your life easier
- Planning for you project makes it run more smoothly
- Avoid surprise costs
Elements of a good DMP¶
- Information about data & data format(s)
- data types
- data sources
- analysis methods
- formats
- QA/QC
- version control
- data life cycle
- Metadata content and format(s)
- format
- standards
- Policies for access, sharing, and re-use
- funder obligations
- ethical and privacy issues (data justice)
- intellectual property, copyright, citation
- timeline for releases
- Long-term storage, data management, and preservation
- which data to preserve
- which archive/repository
- Budget (PAPPG)
- each of the above elements cost time/money
- Personnel time for data preparation, management, documentation, and preservation (including time)
- Hardware and/or software for data management, back up, security, documentation, and preservation (including time)
- Publication/archiving costs (including time)
Not only what, but who (roles).
Extra challenges for collaborative projects.
Machine actionable DMPs¶
https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1006750
- DMPs describe research methods that will evolve over the course of a project
- to be a useful tool for researchers and others, the content must be updated to capture the methods that are employed and the data that are produced
References and Resources¶
- NSF Guidelines on DMPs
- https://dmptool.org/general_guidance
- https://dmptool.org/public_templates
- Professional and scholarly societies, e.g., theEcological Society of America http://www.esa.org/esa/science/data-sharing/resources-and-tools/
- DataOne - https://www.dataone.org/best-practices
- Data Carpentry - http://datacarpentry.org/
- The US Geological Survey http://www.usgs.gov/datamanagement/index.php
- Repository registry (and search) service: http://www.re3data.org/
- Your university library
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