Increasingly, research funders and institutions ask for a Data Management Plan (DMP) to be submitted as part of a research grant application or PhD studies. As well as being a funder requirement, a Data Management Plan is an invaluable tool to help you structure your project and keep you focused.
Even if funders do not require a full plan, they may ask you specific questions, for example, how you plan to treat or share data.
For guidance from several major funders, visit SHERPA.
A good Data Management Plan requires thought and planning, and is a key part of your funding application. A Data Management Plan should detail:
- What research data will be created
- How data will be managed to comply with confidentiality agreements
- What policies and laws apply to the data
- How the data will be stored during research
- Who will own and have access to the data
- How the data will be preserved and made available for re-use
- Who will be responsible for each aspect of the plan
There are many tools available online to help you form your plan. LJMU recommends the use of DMP Online.
DMP Online is free to use, and is compatible with the requirements of major UK research funders.
In addition, many research funders provide their own guidelines via their websites.
Data Management Plans are not necessarily long documents – they typically cover 1 to 3 sides of A4 paper. In many cases you will have already considered and answered the questions the plan asks of you. Creating your Data Management Plan is really a case of assembling that information in one document.
A number of example plans are available from the Digital Curation Centre. DMPOnline also provide access to data plans which have been made publicly available by users of the service.
Some data will need to be treated with care, particularly personal or sensitive information. Even if you plan to anonymise data, you will need to obtain informed consent from participants. You should consider:
- Asking live participants for informed consent to use and share data
- Anonymisation for interviews, testimonies and qualitative data
- Data aggregation for quantitative data
- Use of pseudonyms
- Editing of video and sound footage, and still images
For more information on LJMU’s policy on ethical data collection, storage and use, please see the Research Ethics and Governance webpages.
Additional support is offered by the Library's Researcher Engagement team.
There is a wealth of expertise within LJMU on related matters such as:
For information on intellectual property issues and commercially exploitable data, contact the Knowledge Exchange and Commercialisation team.
