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Research Data Management Plan

General advice

2. General advice

 

2.1 Identify all relevant requirements 

A grant solicitation may have data management requirements in several places. Check for requirements in this order:

  • Solicitation
  • Directorate, division, office, or program
  • Agency general proposal instructions

2.2 Use the norms and standards in your field

In most cases, your data management strategy will reflect the unique needs of your project and the prevailing norms and practices in your field. You should make reference to those norms and practices whenever appropriate.

It can be helpful to identify any relevant rules, standards, or codes of practice that will affect how you manage and share data. This demonstrates that your data management practices are consistent with the standards in your field.

2.3 Amount of detail and required length 

The amount of detail in your plan will depend on the agency or journal requirements and the characteristics of your research project. Consult the agency or journal for directions. While data management plans are typically short, you should provide more detail whenever your plan describes unique, special, or especially complex situations.

2.4 Criteria for data retention 

Before you start writing your plan, you should consider the usefulness and long-term value of your research products. The following kinds of data usually have high value and should be managed and retained accordingly:

  • Data necessary to understand your work and validate, replicate, or reproduce your findings
  • Unique data that cannot be easily or cheaply recreated, or data that are impossible to recreate
  • Data that are broadly useful in your discipline and beyond (e.g. social or environmental observations)
  • Data that you or your students may re-analyze in the future
  • Data that support property claims such as patents
  • Data that you are compelled to retain for regulatory, legal, ethical, institutional, or contractual reasons

Generally, funding agencies and journals do not expect you to retain all your data. However, your plan should explain why you will retain certain data and discard others. Consult your funding agency or journal's requirements for official guidance.