Data Management Plan - DMP

What is the Data Management Plan (DMP) ?

The Data Management Plan (DMP) helps you plan the management of your data before, during and after your research project.

It is a living document, completed and updated regularly, and can take different forms (e.g., electronic document, online template, paper form, etc.) and vary considerably across disciplines and research projects.

By answering different fields and questions, it allows you to better predict what data you will collect or create; how you will describe, process, secure, archive, preserve or share it; and the methods, means, resources and tools available to perform these different actions.

Why should you write a DMP ?

Performing a DMP is important and useful for several reasons :

It saves time and anticipates certain issues (e. g. costs, data destruction or loss, infrastructure, etc.)
It is sometimes mandatory and required by some public donors before funding is granted.
It encourages the reuse of data
It adds value to your data and research
It supports and promotes research that is honest, accountable and transparent

It should be noted that since October 2017, the DMP has become mandatory to obtain funding from the SNSF. It is also mandatory since June 2019 to obtain secure storage space set up by the Ci's Calculation and Research Support Division (see below).

What information does the DMP contain ?

The main information contained in the DMP specifies the following aspects :

The nature and context of the research project
The type of research data collected and produced
The formats, metadata and standards used
Data storage, backup and security
Ethical, legal and ethical issues
Access, sharing and reuse of data
Archiving, storage and long-term preservation
The roles and responsibilities of the different stakeholders

FNS

Since October 2017, it has been mandatory to include a Data Management Plan (DMP) with each request. The SNSF provides a DMP in the account of each researcher on MyFNS.

Therefore, the SNSF asks all researchers it funds to :

archive the research data they have worked on and produced during their work
share this data with other researchers, unless they are bound by legal, ethical, copyright, confidentiality or other clauses
deposit their data and metadata in existing public archives (repositories), in formats that are accessible and reusable without restriction by everyone, and that comply with FAIR principles.

Data sharing

The SNSF considers the sharing of research data as a fundamental contribution to the impact, transparency and reproducibility of scientific research. Grant recipients must therefore ensure that the data generated by their project are publicly accessible in non-commercial data repositories and comply with FAIR principles. These are at least the data necessary to reproduce the published results. These data must be made available as quickly as possible, but at the latest at the time of the corresponding scientific publication.

Some data cannot be shared because the applicants are bound by legal, ethical, confidentiality or copyright clauses. In any case, one of these specific constraints that does not allow data sharing must be justified in the DMP.

Sections of the DMP - SNSF

1 Data collection and documentation

1.1 What data will you collect, observe, generate or reuse ?
1.2 How will data be collected, observed or generated ?
1.3 What documentation and metadata will you provide with the data ?

2 Ethical, legal and safety issues

2.1 How will ethical issues be addressed and treated ?
2.2 How will data access and security be managed ?
2.3 How will you deal with copyright and intellectual property rights ?

3 Data storage and preservation

3.1 How will your data be stored and backed up during the search ?
3.2 What is your data preservation plan ?

4 Data sharing and reuse

4.1 How and where will the data be shared ?
4.2 Are there any limitations necessary to protect sensitive data ?
4.3 I will choose digital repositories that comply with FAIR data principles.
4.4 I will choose digital repositories managed by a non-profit organization.

See the SNSF FAQ on the DMP.

DMP FNS - example and content

Horizon 2020

Since 2017, all research work funded by Horizon 2020 has been part of the Open Research Data Pilot (ORDP) by default. The aim of this project is to open research data generated under H2020 with as few restrictions as possible, while protecting sensitive data from inappropriate access.

Under certain conditions, the option of partial or total opt-out is possible. Some costs related to data management may be reimbursed (see Art. 6.2.D.3). In addition, the drafting of a DMP is mandatory. Researchers should therefore briefly and broadly present their data management policy, answering the following questions :

How will the data be managed, during and after the project ?
What data will be collected, processed or generated ?
What methodology and standards will be applied ?
Will the data be shared/make accessible (or not) and how ?
How will data be archived, stored and preserved ?

Guides for writing DMPs in Horizon 2020

DMP templates in French and English (docx and PDF)
Guidelines on Data Management in Horizon 2020. Version 3.0 (European Union, 26.07.2016)
Develop a data management plan : writing guide [V1, 09.01.2015] (Aurore Cartier, Magalie Moysan and Nathalie Reymonet, 2015)
Horizon 2020 : FAIR DMP model

What about the DMP at UNIL ?

According to UNIL directive 4.5, any research project using the resources of the Computing and Research Support Division (DCSR) of the Computer Centre must be accompanied by a data management plan (DMP) that will be collected, processed or generated during the different phases of the research.

A simplified DMP has been developed by UNIRIS and a technical interface related to storage demand will soon be developed by Ci (planned for early 2020). This interface will allow you to create your DMP when you request storage space at Ci, to edit it and complete it as the research project goes ahead.

For projects that do not use DCSR resources, the drafting of a DMP is strongly recommended. The DMP remains mandatory, notwithstanding the use of UNIL storage, when the conditions of the funding agencies require so (e.g. SNSF, H2020).