What is a Data Management Plan?
A data management plan (DMP) is a written document that describes the data you expect to acquire or generate during the course of a research project, how you will manage, describe, analyze, and store those data, and what mechanisms you will use at the end of your project to share and preserve your data.
DMPs are required for many other federal funders, including the National Institutes of Health (NIH) which will be requiring a DMP at time of application, starting January 2023. Writing DMPs helps researchers formalize the process, identify weaknesses in their plan, and provide them with a record of what they intend to do. We recommend using the DMPTool to create your data management plan.
What is the Data Management Planning Tool (DMPTool)?
The DMPTool is an online tool that includes data management plan templates for many of the large funding agencies that require such plans, including NIH, NSF, NEH, and IMLS. The tool includes:
- General guidance
- Links to helpful documentation
- Issues to consider
- Specific questions to think about as you prepare your data management plan
Space is provided to compose a response for each of the main areas that your funding agency (if applicable) would like for you to address in your plan. You can save and come back to your plan as often as you like. When needed, you can download your plan and insert it into your grant proposal.
Why use the DMPTool?
We highly recommend using the DMPTool to create your data management plan. This resource can help save time, protect your data investment, and increase your research efficiency. It also helps you prospectively think about the data you will collect and how you will manage it, thus strengthening your research design.
Marquette is registered as a participating institution with DMPTool, which enables Marquette users to log in with their MU credentials and to receive MU-specific information and guidance as they create their plans. To create a DMPTool account:
