Data Management Plan (DMP)
Almost all research funders require the submission of a data management plan (DMP) together with the project application or as soon as the project is approved. This means that a separate document must outline how the research data for the project will be collected, analyzed, stored and archived.
A DMP typically contains project-specific information on the following topics:
- Data collection & organisation
- Legal, ethical & security issues
- Data sharing & re-use
- Data storage & preservation
You will find detailed recommendations and best practices on all of the above topics on this website.
For quick guidance on writing a DMP, see below for our checklists and other recommended documents, websites and examples.
DMP support and review
There are several support units at the University that can advise and assist you in writing a DMP.
For a DMP review and consultation please contact us and send us a short description of your research project and your DMP draft. We will direct you to the persons who can assist you best.
Contact
Your message goes to the Open Science Team of the University Library of Basel via researchdata - at - unibas.ch.
Resources for writing a DMP
- FORS: How to draft a DMP from the perspective of the social sciences (for SNSF grants)
- SPHN Data Management Plan (DMP) Guidelines, with specific recommendations for SPHN/BioMedIT projects
- Digital Curation Centre (UK): Checklist for a DMP
- DMPonline: DMPs for national and international funders
- DMP-Tool (international)
- NIH: writing a data management and sharing plan
FAQ
Why should I write a DMP?
Almost all research funders expect you to submit a DMP when you apply for a research project. A DMP typically contains project-specific information on the following topics: Data collection and organisation, ethical, legal, security issue, data sharing and re-use, data storage and preservation.
By writing a DMP and thinking about those steps before the project starts, the risks of data loss or other threats that could render the data illegible or unusable are reduced because specific measures will be taken, such as multiple backup, versioning, documentation etc. A DMP is not only useful for grant submissions, but also improves data management during the life of the project, which increases the efficiency of the research project and improves collaboration within and outside the research group.
What are the FAIR principles?
FAIR is an acronym for a concept that describes in 15 principles how to make data Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable in the best way.
For researchers, this means, among other things, the following:
Findable
- persistent identifier are assigned
- Metadata are online
Accessible
- Data are online
- restrictions are definded (where needed)
Interoperable
- data is available in appropriate file formats for long-term preservation
- standards and controlled vocabularies are used
Reusable
- rich documentation is provided
- data are assigned with clear usage licences (e.g. Creative Commons licenses)
What costs for data publication are covered by the SNSF?
The SNSF allows researchers to budget “Costs for granting access to research data (Open Research Data)” up to a maximum of CHF 10’000. These costs are part of the regular budget and have to be included at the time of proposal submission. The costs may be claimed for the publication of data that was collected, observed or generated under the specific SNSF grant.
The following costs can be budgeted in this category:
- Costs for data upload into a (non-profit) repository
- Internal or external costs for data preparation, e.g. internal or external personal costs. It is important that the exact person-months and hourly rate are declared to the SNSF in the cost report.
What is not covered:
- Recurring maintenance costs for data storage in a repository. Exceptionally, maintenance costs could be accepted if charged as non-recurring costs combined in a package with the upload costs.