A data management plan is a document which outlines your data management and sharing activities both during the research project and then once it is complete. It is generally written at the start of a research project and should be revisited at different stages of the project and updated where necessary. DMPs may be published in the UCL Research Data Repository and assigned a DOI.

Why are Data Management Plans useful?

In addition to often being a prerequisite to receiving certain grants, DMPs are useful for:

• maximising the research potential of existing research outputs by reusing and repurposing them
• thinking about and developing your strategy for issues such as data storage and long-term preservation, handling of sensitive data, and sharing, early on in your research.
• anticipating legal, ethical and commercial exceptions to releasing data; deciding who can have access to data in the short and long term.
• estimating the costs associated with managing and sharing which can then be included in your project budget.

Instructions

Use this template and the guiding prompts to help you write a data management plan. Adjust the response boxes as needed and you are welcome to share your plan with the Library Services Research Data Management team for feedback.