Skip to Main Content

Research Data Management at UF: Data Management Planning

This is a guide on resources available at the University of Florida and beyond on research data management. It includes information about tools for data management planning, data and file sharing, metadata and data standards, and data storage.

Alphabet soup! DMP, DMSP, DSMP, DSP and more

One challenge in data management and sharing is that "data management" means different things to different people. This problem gets even worse when we abbreviate data terminology to acronyms. It's important to use select the right type of data management plan for the right job.

  • DMSP, a Data Management and Sharing Plan (NIH): A 2-page supplemental document at proposal submission describing expected data management practices in order to optimize reusability of data and when possible, to lead to data sharing processes, starting 2023
  • DMP, Data Management Plan may mean:
    • A data management plan for security: Comes from UF's Information Security Office and https://security.ufl.edu/resources/data-security/. This security plan is essential to protecting privacy but does not address post-closeout data sharing for grant DMP/DMSP sharing.
    • A data management plan submitted as a supplement with a federal grant proposal. This kind of DMP describes the management of data and metadata for purposes of preservation and sharing of data.
  • DMPtool, at https://dmptool.org: A system for writing data management plans or data management and sharing plans to supplement federal funding applications
  • DSP, a Data Sharing Plan (NIH): A 2-page supplemental document at proposal submission describing expected data sharing processes, to be retired in 2023 and replaced with the new, farther-reaching DMSP
  • DUA or DSA, a data use agreement or data sharing agreement: A license or contract between a sharer and a sharee of data, describing the terms under which the data are being shared. This specific document of terms may be used in support of restricted data sharing.

DMP at UF

For individual or group consultation/training on how to prepare your Data Management Plan, please contact your liaison librarian/subject specialist.

DMPTool icon 

The University of Florida is a partner institution of the DMPTool. It allows you to create ready-to-use data management plans for specific funding agencies.  Use your gatorlink and password to login and use this tool.

Sample DMPs

Templates can be a good place to start in writing your data management plan, as long as you customize them for your project.

Public Access Policy & History

In 2022, the White House Office of Science & Technology Policy (OSTP) updated its 2013 Memorandum with the Public Access Policy Guidance, expanding guidance and reducing limitations to public data in response to COVID-19. The updated guidance gives federal agencies the opportunity to update their public data access plans by December 31st, 2024.

In 2013, the OSTP issued an Executive Directive entitled Increasing Access to the Results of Federally Funded Scientific Research ("2013 Memorandum") requiring the results of taxpayer-funded research – both articles and data – be made freely available to the general public with the goal of accelerating scientific discovery and fueling innovation.

Training on Data Management at UF

Trainings are free and open to UF all faculty, students and staff. Learn practical strategies for best managing your research data. This workshop includes questions to consider when creating a data management plan, with a focus on the DMPTool and tools for sharing your data at the University of Florida. Topics include metadata and annotation, file formats and organization, storage, backups and security, and data sharing. Contact me or your liaison librarian/subject specialist for small group or departmental presentations.

Electronic Lab Notebook at UF

LabArchives helps manage the results of research efforts, record research processes and procedures, and manage digital research data to increase reproducibility, efficiency, collaboration, searchability, and security. The university has an enterprise license for faculty, researchers, staff, and students in research activities. See: Electronic Lab Notebook @ UF via https://it.ufl.edu/services/electronic-lab-notebook.

LabArchives support and training 

The Data Life Cycle

A data management plan should describe what is going on with your data, who is responsible for it, and where it is located throughout its life cycle.

Data Management Plans

Data management plans (DMPs) ensure that you have defined how you will collect and label, protect, store, and share your data. 

Having a DMP in place at the beginning of your research process means you won't have to worry about it as much later! DMP's are good research practice, but you might also want to have one because your funder requires you to.

Basic components of a DMP:

  • Data collection:  Types of data; Data and metadata standards to be used
  • Data protection: Privacy, confidentiality, intellectual property rights
  • Data sharing and re-use
  • Data preservation (long-term)

Guides to writing a DMP:

Writing a DMSP new format for 2023

 

 

In a supplemental document of two pages or less, address the following six sections:

  1. Data Type: Briefly describe the scientific data to be managed, preserved, and shared, including:

  2. Related Tools, Software and/or Code: An indication of whether specialized tools will be needed to access or manipulate the shared scientific data to support replication or reuse, and name(s) of the needed tool(s) and software.
  3. Standards: An indication of what standards will be applied to the scientific data and associated metadata (i.e., data formats, data dictionaries, data identifiers, definitions, unique identifiers, and other data documentation). If the discipline of the research does not have a shared approach to data structures, the Plan may indicate that no consensus data standards exist for this scientific data and metadata.
  4. Data Preservation, Access, and Associated Timelines: Plans and timelines for data preservation and access, including (a) specific repository or repositories where data will be shared (see tab on the left on repositories); what persistent identifier or other indexing tool will be provided to find and access the data; and when data will become available and for how long it will stay available.

  5. Access, Distribution, or Reuse Considerations: Any limits that will be placed on access, and why the limits are expected to be placed.
  6. Oversight of Data Management and Sharing: Indicate how and on what schedule the DMS Plan will be monitored and managed, and by whom.

DMP Tool for DMSP

Prefer a template ?  Find the new DMS Plan format listed as "NIH DMSP (2023- forthcoming)" when you select the funder during the process of creating a new plan. This is a great way to practice the new planning process and format.

University of Florida Home Page

This page uses Google Analytics - (Google Privacy Policy)

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.