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What is a data management plan (DMP) and why will most of the researchers get in touch with it? This summary will help you to understand what a DMP is, which benefits you will have from it and what kind of support you will receive.

What is a DMP

A DMP is a document describing how to deal with data during the course of lifetime of a project and beyond. Since October 2017, the SNSF has demanded that a DMP be submitted with each application. Other research funding agencies are also increasingly demanding that the handling of data be planned systematically and that it be made safe to use it again. A DMP consists of four chapters:

1: Data Collection and Documentation
How are the data generated and which data are re-used? How will the data be documented? What metadata are needed to sufficiently describe and thus understand the data?

2: Ethics, legal and security issues?
Are the data subject to personal rights or copyrights? Are there other legal contracts that have to be respected? Do the data have tob e modified in a way (e.g. anonymization) that they can be shared?

3: Data Storage and Preservation
How and where are data stored? How often are back ups performed and by whom?

4: Data sharing and re-use
How and where are data shared? Who is allowed to access the data? How are sensitive data protected?

Further information regarding the content of a DMP can be found here: www.snf.ch/SiteCollectionDocuments/DMP_content_mySNF-form_en.pdf
Information on the submission of DMPs can be found here: http://www.snf.ch/en/theSNSF/research-policies/open_research_data/Pages/data-management-plan-dmp-guidelines-for-researchers.aspx

What are the advantages for researchers of creating a DMP?

• Efficiency: Increase of work efficiency over the entire project duration (ensure retrievability, avoid data loss), as it is defined in time how data should be stored securely and possibly shared. Gain of time when data is easy to find and understand.
• Security: Avoiding risks in copyright matters (no transfer of data to commercial platforms, adequate licensing) by defining who may have access to which data and how sensitive data are protected.
• Citations: Enabling re-use and increasing the citation frequency of research results through a) the use of persistent identifiers (e.g. doi – digital object identifier), b) the provision of data in repositories such as Zenodo, and c) the re-use of own data by other researchers.
• Credibility: Improve your own credibility and confidence in other publications when data are freely accessible or when at least the published DMP shows how the data were generated and managed.

Good to know

• A DMP is a living document. This means that although it must be as complete and plausible as possible at the time of the application, it can and must be constantly adapted during the course of the project.Der DMP ist nicht Teil der wissenschaftlichen Evaluation des Forschungsantrags, muss aber zum Zeitpunkt des Antragsgesuchs miteingereicht werden.
• Creating a DMP does not mean that you have to promise to share all your data. Researchers have the freedom to describe which data should not be shared and for what reasons.
• The SNSF is currently contributing up to CHF 10´000 to the costs of uploading data to repositories. à http://www.snf.ch/en/researchinFocus/faq/Pages/faq-open-research-data-data-management-plan-an-welche-kosten-fuer-open-research-data-leistet-der-snf-einen-beitrag.aspx

What help is available to me?

The Data Services team will be happy to advise you on how to handle your data. Get in touch now :  data@hbz.uzh.ch
We also offer courses on research data management and DMP writing workshops: https://www.hbz.uzh.ch/en/kurse.html