What is a Data Management Plan (DMP)?

A data management plan (DMP) is a formal document you create that describes how you plan to manage your research data throughout your research project, including how you plan data collection, documentation, storage and backup, preservation, sharing and reuse, and protection of sensitive data. A DMP is a living document that will require regular review and revision throughout your research project.

Why Create a DMP?

Whenever you collect data you will have a basic plan or strategy to manage that data. You determine how formal or informal that plan needs to be. It can be as simple as a shared document between you and your team where you will determine what data you will collect and how. A simple plan with some form of documentation is necessary to ensure you and your team are all on the same page to avoid repeated work or collecting unusable data. A formal DMP may not be necessary for your project but may be required by certain publishers or funders.

Tri-Agency Funding

The federal granting Tri-Agencies of Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) encourage grant applicants to complete data management plans (DMPs) as an essential step in research project design. For specific funding opportunities, the agencies may require DMPs to be submitted to the appropriate agency at the time of application.

The Tri-Agencies encourage grant applicants to use standardized tools to develop their DMPs, such as the  DMP Assistant, provided by the Digital Research Alliance of Canada and the University of Alberta

Need a Guide?

Example DMPs

The following Example DMPs (formerly DMP Exemplars) are available in the Alliance's Training Resources. Please check the list for more examples.

Digital Humanities

Digital Humanities and Secondary Data

Natural Sciences

Social Sciences

Mixed Methods

DMP Assistant defaults to the Portage Template, a basic DMP template based on best practices in data management. There are also a number of specialized templates for different types of research, with more templated being developed on an ongoing basis.

To create a Data Management Plan using one of these templates in the DMP Assistant

1. Sign In or Create an Account
   • To Create an Account, provide your name, email, organization (University of Northern BC), create a password, and accept the terms and conditions 
2. Select Create Plan
3. Describe what research project you are planning
4. Select University of Northern BC under Select the primary research organisation
5. Choose a DMP template from the new drop-down list
6. Select Create Plan