Data Management and Sharing Plan Resources
What is a Data Management and Sharing Plan?
A data management and sharing plan (DMSP) is a concise cradle-to-grave “life cycle” narrative for the products of your scholarship that describe how the research data will be collected, stored, analyzed, preserved, and shared as part of Bates Commitment to Openness in Intellectual Inquiry, Research, and Education.
Many funding agencies require a DMSP for projects involving data collection as part of a grant proposal. In addition, most funders (even those that don’t require a DMSP at the time of submission) have record retention policies that extend years beyond submission of the final grant reports. The Sponsored Programs and Research Compliance (SPaRC) office and Information & Library Services (ILS) work together to support principle investigators in the creation and review of DMSPs to make sure you and Bates have the necessary resources to manage data retention commitments, now and in the future.
Below are resources that may be helpful as you develop and refine your DMSP.
Getting Started
- First, take a look at these data management plan guides before starting or refining your DMP
- Reference the FAQ: 2022 Public Access Policy Guidance (OSTP) for answers to your questions.
- Please reach out to SPaRC (sparc@bates.edu) if you would like examples of DMPs that have been submitted by your Bates colleagues as part of their grant proposals.
Bates Policies and Resources
- Bates Data Management and Sharing Policy
- ILS Research Resources Data Management Plan Support
- DMSP Worksheet – This worksheet serves as a prompt for Bates researchers to collect and share the information needed to effectively manage and share research data.
- If a DMSP (or DMP) is required as part of the proposal, a DMSP Worksheet must be completed before proposal submission.
- If data will be generated as part of the project, a DMSP worksheet must be completed and/or reviewed at the time of award and prior to spending award funds.
- DMSP Worksheet – This worksheet serves as a prompt for Bates researchers to collect and share the information needed to effectively manage and share research data.
- Bates data repositories and archives
Budgeting for Data Management
While Bates offers many resources for researchers to store and share their data, some projects have data needs that exceed these existing resources. Costs associated with data management and sharing may be allowable expenses on a grant application. These could include:
- hardware purchases
- cloud storage subscriptions
- personnel to manage data, etc
Consult with ILS and SPaRC early in the proposal development process for guidance.
National Institutes of Health resources
“NIH expects researchers to maximize the appropriate sharing of scientific data, taking into account factors such as legal, ethical, or technical issues that may limit the extent of data sharing and preservation” and requires submission of a DMSP with all grant applications for projects that are expected to generate scientific data.
- NIH definition of Scientific Data
- “Scientific Data is defined as data commonly accepted in the scientific community as of sufficient quality to validate and replicate research findings, regardless of whether the data are used to support scholarly publications.
- Scientific data includes any data needed to validate and replicate research findings.
- Scientific data does not include laboratory notebooks, preliminary analyses, completed case report forms, drafts of scientific papers, plans for future research, peer reviews, communications with colleagues, or physical objects such as laboratory specimens.”
- NIH Policy for Data Management and Sharing
- Institute-specific DMSP policies and requirements
- Some NIH institutes and centers have their own specific policies and requirements which are in addition to or supersede the general instructions.
- Writing an NIH Data Management and Sharing Plan
- Elements to include in an NIH DMSP
- Sample NIH DMSPs
- NIH Plan Templates
National Science Foundation resources
NSF requires submission of a Data Management Plan (up to 2 pages in length) with every proposal. A single DMP submitted by the lead institution is required for all collaborative projects.
- NSF DMP policy – from PAPPG 23-1
- For collaborative proposals on which Bates is not the lead institution, PIs will need to complete a DMSP Worksheet at the time of award and will be asked to provide a copy of the lead institution’s DMP at that time.
- Preparing your NSF DMP
Data Repositories
- Etna Collaborative Networked File Storage – Etna is a network-based collaborative file storage system available to Bates faculty and academic staff. With Etna, you have the option to share files with selected members of the Bates community using a simple web-based request form
- SCARAB Data Repository – A location in the Bates institutional digital repository available to make your research products available for discovery, re-use and re-purposing. Created in direct response to the expectations of federal funding agencies for making research products widely and rapidly available at minimum cost to end users.
- G Suite Academic Edition Team Drive – Google Team Drive is a third party, cloud based storage solution that provides the ability to share files with off campus collaborators.
- OURRstore Archival File Storage – Created in 2020, OURRstore is an NSF-funded digital tape archival file storage solution hosted by Oklahoma University. OURRstore provides extremely cost effective (~$10/TB/copy) redundant storage of “write once, read never (or infrequently)” archived data.
- NIH-supported Scientific Data Repositories