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Data management planning

The data management plan (DMP) outlines how a research project will manage data both during the research and after the project is completed.

To write your DMP please use DMPonline , if you are unable to log in then please lib-using-staff-research-services-contact-Managing-Research-Data.

Your DMP number is at the end of the URL of your plan in DMPonline (e.g. https://dmponline.manchester.ac.uk/plans/99999).

If your funder is not listed in DMPonline please check the box that says ‘No funder associated with this plan’ and you will be directed to the University of Manchester Template.

Check University RDM Policy and funder requirements

Many funders policies now require researchers to create a data management plan as part of grant applications, and the University’s RDM Policy requires researchers to prepare a DMP for every research project whether it is funded or not. A research project is time-limited and answers a research question. For funded research a project covers the duration of the grant.

Collaborative projects where The University of Manchester is not the lead institution require a data management plan covering the data held in Manchester.

To check your funder's research data requirements please refer to our Policies page before preparing a grant application.

Please note that terminology varies across funders; a Data Management Plan may also be referred to as a Data Management and Sharing Plan, Data Sharing Plan or Outputs Management Plan.

Audio, video and images of participants must be processed and stored in line with the Taking recordings of participants for research projects Standard Operating Procedure.

Create and maintain a data management plan

DMPonline

You can create a data management plan using DMPonline

Funder update

AHRC now require all projects to have a Data Management Plan. Please see our policy pages for further guidance. 

Logging in to DMPonline

You can easily register and start using DMPonline by visiting the webpage. Your University email address will then be your username each time you log in.  

After you’ve registered with DMPonline you will be able to use your institutional login in future.

Using DMPonline

You can use the Tool to:

  • Create a data management plan. To do this you need to click on the 'Create plans' tab at the top of the page. When creating your plan, you must select the University of Manchester as the primary research organisation. If you don’t do this, we won’t receive the right information needed to provide the necessary support for your plan. You can then select your funder. If your funder doesn’t appear in the search box, or your project is unfunded, check the box that says ‘No funder associated with this plan’ and you will be directed to the University of Manchester Template.
  • Once you have created your plan, insert the five-digit number at the end of the URL of your plan (e.g.  https://dmponline.dcc.ac.uk/plans/99999) into the RDM Reference Field in the Research Approval form (known as the Panman form in FBMH).
    • Download your DMP from DMPonline  (accessed via the ‘Download’ tab) using the ‘docx’ format and delete the ‘Manchester Data Management Outline’ questions before submitting to a funder.
    • Under the ‘Share’ tab on DMPonline you can do the following:
      • Choose who is able to view your plan by setting your plan visibility.
      • Invite collaborators to edit and/or comment on your plan.
      • Request a review of your DMP from the Research Data Management team
    • You can view all of your existing plans by clicking on the 'My Dashboard' tab at the top of the page. 

For further guidance on using DMPonline, please see our 60 Second Skills videos.

Workflow for grant applications

For assistance with writing grant applications please consult this Data management planning workflow .

Ensure ongoing review

A DMP should be an evolving document in which information can be added as the project progresses, and when significant changes occur. It is good practice to establish a schedule for reviewing and updating a DMP in combination with project events e.g. funding approval, periodic reviews.

Address data protection and ethics

Data protection and ethics

Ethical guidelines issued by funders and the University cover how you can create, store, share and archive data concerned with human subjects. In addition, laws such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), govern the processing of personal data.

Even sensitive research data can often be shared legally and ethically by using informed consent, anonymisation and controlled access. In order to be able to do this it is important to consider potential data sharing and re-use scenarios well before the ethics process and data collection.

Be explicit in your consent forms about your plans to make data available, who will be able to access the data, and how the data would be accessed and potentially re-used.

Support

Resources

  • Legal and ethical issues (UK Data Service) especially sub-sections on consent, anonymisation and access control
  • Data protection and research data (Jisc)
  • Guide to data protection (Information Commissioner’s Office) is for those who have day-to-day responsibility for data protection. It explains the purpose and effect of each principle, gives practical examples and answers frequently asked questions.
  • Data legislation and information governance (NHS Health Research Authority) draws together guidance and legislation on the use of personal data in health research, and covers: Personal data in research; Research databases; Confidentiality, privacy and data protection.

Consider intellectual property and licensing

Intellectual property (IP) in new data

For new data, you need to:

  • Determine what rights, including copyright, will subsist in the data produced by the project
  • Establish who will be the rights holder/s for the data
  • Consider what terms and conditions should be applied to the data for re-use

Subject to some exceptions, rights in IP created by:

  • employees of this University will usually belong to the University
  • students of this University will usually belong to the student

Re-using third-party data legally and responsibly

For third-party data you are sourcing from elsewhere, you need to:

  • Establish the rights holder
  • Establish the terms and conditions of re-use granted by the rights holder/s and assess whether your re-use fits within these. To establish the terms and conditions of re-use, you will need to:
    • Find and keep a copy of any 'express permission' that the rights holder has given. This will usually be a licence or a set of standard terms and conditions that apply to the process by which you have obtained the data, such as downloading from websites and online data archives
    • or, if no express permission is given that enables you to establish terms and conditions of re-use, you must seek permission from the rights holder directly

Support

For more detailed intellectual property advice contact UoM Innovation Factory.

Gather together all eligible costs

Many funders encourage applicants to include data management and sharing costs in research bids. Consult guidance provided by your funder for details.

For general guidance on costing RDM and other IT-related costs, see the University's Finance page for IT and RDM-related costs.

If RDM costs are allowed to be included in a funding application, they should be calculated based on the details in the data management plan:

  • Identify RDM activities to be performed during the research project to produce, curate and share data and metadata.
  • For each activity identified, determine the total staff time and/or other resources required (e.g. software, hardware, equipment, training) and cost this.
  • Consider whether the scale and complexity of research activities justify employing a dedicated data manager (who could be funded from a number of different projects). For smaller scale research projects, data management duties can be assigned to members of the research team or handled by the Principal Investigator.

The UK Data Service costing tool helps formulate RDM costs and includes more detailed descriptions of RDM activities.

Data Management Plan Support Service

The Research Data Management Service can review your data management plan (DMP) prior to submission with grant applications and provide feedback.

Please allow ten working days for our review. We will try to accommodate requests for review at short notice but please note that we cannot guarantee this.

Please make sure that you have read your funder's policies on research data management and prepared your plan in accordance with these.

If you would like us to review your data management plan (DMP), please click the ‘Request feedback’ button in the ‘Request feedback’ tab within your plan on DMPonline.

 

Example data management plans

To get a feel for what to write in a DMP, see the Digital Curation Centre’s Example DMPs and guidance.

Resources