Data Management Plan

Librarians across Norway created a great resource on data management planning. It is recommended that you use this for information as well as guides for completing templates. It is plan.research-data.no

What is a DMP?

A data management plan (DMP) is first and foremost a planning tool. It is a living, formal document that encompasses a wide variety of information describing how the data is going to be handled throughout the lifecycle of the project. A DMP should stimulate researchers to think about optimal handling, organizing, documenting, and storing of their data.

• Helps to plan and budget necessary resources and equipment;
• Defines roles and responsibilities, agreement within the team
• Identify risks in data handling and apply solutions at early stage;
• Facilitates data sharing, reuse and preservation.

Why make a DMP?

• Compliance: As an UiO employee, you should create a data management plan for your research data (cf. Guidelines). Additionally, ERC, RCN, and other funding organizations require data management plans. Increasing number of journals require one. 
• Planning: Saves time and effort by systematic documentation. Identify early stage issues and time dependent requirements. 
• Impact: Plan ahead for sharing data, optimize the impact and visibility of the research. 
• Collaboration: Encourages improvement and validation of research methods
• Longevity: If you win the lottery, someone else will be able to continue your research

What is included in a DMP?

While the content of the plan may vary, there are generally six main topics:

1. Responsibility: Who will be responsible for managing the data during and after the project, and what resources are needed

2. Documentation: How you will ensure that the data is well organised and adequately documented.

3. Description: The volume and type of data set to be generated/used.

4. Ethical and Legal: How to ensure that the data is compatible with ethical and legal requirements

5. Storage: Where the data is to be stored and backed up during the lifetime of the project

6. Sharing and Preservation: How to save and make the data accessible to others in the long term

In the templates we recommend, the parts of the DMP are broken into four sections: Administrative, Awareness, Data Itself, Effort and Costs

These are further broken into nine sections:

1. About the DMP

2. About the research project

3. Legal and ethical aspects

4. Storing and protecting data during the project

5. Reusing and collecting data

6. Data documentation during the project

7.  Processing, analyzing and interpreting data

8. Archiving and publishing data

9. Responsibilities and resources

How to get started

It is recommended that you use the FAIR Wizard Norway platform for creating a DMP. This is a cloud service created by BOTT Universities in Norway based on the DSW Wizard. There are specific templates for Norway (for example for the RCN) and it operates in questionnaire format. 

As it is a cloud based platform, it makes it easy for sharing and collaborating with others. 

Note: If you want to collaborate with someone OUTSIDE of Norwegian Universities, you should be using the parent DSW Wizard instead. 

Start a New Project

1. Login to Norway FAIR Wizard: https://norway.fair-wizard.com/
2. Create a new project by selecting "Start your DMP" on the left toolbar OR with the "Create" button under the Create Project section on the dashboard
3. Name your Project something unique to the specific project 
4. Select a "Project Template"
   1. All RITMO projects need to choose one of the RCN templates
   2. ELSI: Ethical, legal, and social issues so if you have personal or copyright data 
   3. HPC: High performance computing
   4. Unsure: Ask Kayla
5. Create Project and Start filling it out!

Using the Template

The top menu lets you navigate between the actual questionnaire, a preview of the exportable document, created documents, and settings for the project. 

The left menu lets you change between the current phase you are in with regards to your project. These are initial DMP, midway DMP, and complete DMP

Each of the 9 chapters are listed with the number of unanswered questions in that chapter. 

The questions themselves are red or green depending on completeness or grey if it is not yet time to answer them. Some will have a tag below and it lets you know where it comes from (RCN means the question is required for the RCN). There is a plus icon which adds it to the TODOs, as well as a comments icon and a copy link icon. Some of the questions will add subparts depending on your answers. Each question has a description, examples, and external links with educational information about it. 

On the upper right you are able to share the DMP with someone else. That person would need to have already logged to FAIR Wizard to have a user account. Then in the comments you are able to tag them, this will result in an email notification. 

For more detailed information and instructions from the creators, visit the DMP supporting information page at plan.research-data.no

Note: If you need to collaborate with outside Norway, follow the Advanced questionnaire setup instructions on that same link. 

Remember, a data management should not be a bureaucratic burden but a useful means of support when planning and conducting a research project. Make sure to tailor it to your specific project. 

Helpful Links

• More from UiO
  • Data Management Plan
  • Policies and guidelines for research data management
  • Relevant courses from the Digital Scholarship Center at the Library
  • Creating a DMP from the Human Time Data Project

• Information from Outside Organizations

  • Sikt Data Managment Plan
  • EU H2020 Data Management
  • ERC Open Research Data and DMPs
  • Science Europe Practical Guide *this is great for the "is my DMP good" question