A data management plan is a formal, living document that outlines what you will do with your data during and after you complete your research. Different funders may call the document a data sharing plan, a data archiving plan, or a technical plan. The goal of a data management plan is to consider the many aspects of data management, metadata generation, data preservation, and analysis before the project begins; this should lead to data being well-managed in the present and prepared for preservation in the future.
There are multiple components to consider when formulating a plan, including:
- Where and how to archive and share data
- A quick overview on Selecting a Data Sharing Repository (PPT).
- For information on preserving your research data for future reuse, check out these slides on Data Preservation (PPT).
- Why and how to cite data
- Data privacy & copyright and intellectual property rights
- A quick overview on Why you should apply a license to your data (PPT).
- And for more detailed information on licensing, check out Which License Should I Apply to My Data? (PPT)
- Documenting the data
- A quick overview on Documentation and Metadata (PPT)
- And for more detailed information on unstructured documentation, check out Documentation and Metadata (PPT)
- And for more detailed information on structured documentation (metadata), check out Metadata for data (PPT)
- File Formats and Data Types
- Check out a video created by one of our interns describing different data types.
- Organizing files and tracking changes
- Aheck out these slides, for a quick overview on Data Collection and Spreadsheets (PPT).
- And for detailed information on file and directory naming, check out slides on File-Directory-Organization (PPT)
- And for more detailed information on quality assurance and file transformations, check out our slides on QA and Transformations (PPT).
- Data Security and Encryption
- Data Security is the protection of data from unauthorized access, use, change, disclosure, and destruction.
- Encryption offers protection by scrambling data, so only the owner of the key or password can read the data.
- Passwords
- Data Storage and backups
- A quick overview on Best Practices for storing and securing your data (PPT).
To learn more, visit our Research Data Management Guide.