Creating a Data Management Plan
A Data Management Plan (DMP) describes your data management and sharing activities. It is typically 1-5 pages in length and should cover the four phases of the research data lifecycle:
- Planning and preparing for your research project;
- Actively researching;
- Archiving, preserving and curating;
- Discovery, access and sharing.
Prior to applying for ethical approval you will need to create a detailed research data management plan (dmp). This is a living-document that should be referred back to at each stage of your data collection, usage and preservation. If the data type that you are collecting changes, then you will need to update your data management plan and submit an amended research proposal to the ethics committee and have this approved before commencing the further research.
At the University of Northampton each Faculty has an ethics committee and there is a main University ethics committee that considers and approves all post graduate research projects. No research should be undertaken without ethical approval.
The University has access to DMPOnline to create and guide you through the process of writing your research data management plan.
To access DMPOnline you need to register using your University log in details.
DMP will lead you through each step, with helpful guidance for each question. You can save your data management plan at any time to come back to, and you can email the plan to yourself or others, or can save it as a word or pdf document.
All major funders templates are covered, and there are links to completed research data management plans that can give you a better idea of how some of the questions should be addressed.
If your research is not funded you can select no funder and a generic data management plan template is provided with guidance.
If you are writing a data management plan for a funding bid, you can budget costs to help improve the management, sharing, and preservation of research data. This could include staff time, software, technology, and resources to make your data more open. Ensure you have checked through the costing tool provided by the UK data service.
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Researchers can create a guided Data Management Plan using the Digital Curation Centre’s DMP Online service.
Sign in using the orange institutional credentials button which reads ‘Sign in with your institutional credentials’.
Use the login form to search for University of Northampton and you’ll be taken through the standard university sign-in process:
After signing in you’ll be taken to your account dashboard. You’ll see links at the top of the page to return to your dashboard, and to access the DMP reference guides and help pages.
Use the ‘Create plan’ button to start a new plan.
To create a plan you’ll need to give it a name, select a primary research organisation, and select a funder.
University of Northampton will already be selected as the primary research organisation, and will not usually need to be changed.
Type into the Funder field to search for your funding organisation:
If your funder doesn’t appear or your research isn’t funded, tick the associated box that reads: ‘No funder associated with this plan or my funder is not listed’.
You can also tick the mock project option to create a private practice plan: ‘mock project for testing, practice, or educational purposes’.
From the dashboard you can also browse and search existing data management plans created and shared at UON. These can be downloaded as PDFs to help you understand how other researchers have made use of the DMP Online service. New plans are private by default, but during creation you’ll have the option of sharing your plan with specific colleagues, or with anyone at the university.