Data Management Plan Checklist
The following checklist is a quick guide to help make sure you include the major parts of a DMP. It's also available to download as a PDF below.
Data Collection
What is your project and what data are you collecting?
- Description of project and purpose
- Types of data collected or used
- What the data describes
- How the data will be collected
- Amount of data to be collected
Data Organization
How will you organize the data you're collecting?
- File type(s)
- File format(s)
- Software needed
- Version control? Y/N
- Version control program (if applicable)
- File naming structure
Data Documentation
How will you describe data so as to keep it useful long-term?
- Metadata standard used (if applicable)
- Metadata collected (if not using a standard)
- What additional documentation and metadata will be included
- Where documentation and metadata will be stored
Data Storage & Security
What are your data storage and security needs?
- Security classification
- Storage location
- Frequency of backups
- Person(s) responsible for backing up data
Ethics & IP Rights
Will these factors apply to your data? - This section will not be applicable to all DMPs.
- Use of human participants? (Y/N)
- Efforts made to protect the privacy of human participants
- Who will own the copyright and intellectual property rights of the data, if applicable
Preservation & Sharing
How will you store and share your data once your project is complete?
- What data will be preserved
- How long will data be preserved
- Long-term storage location
- Person(s) responsible for the stewardship of the data
- How data will be shared
- Any potential restrictions on data sharing
