Search
Menu
Je me connecte

University of Louvain Libraries and Learning Centers

Search

University of Louvain Libraries and Learning Centers

The Data Management Plan (DMP)

biul |

Whether quantitative or qualitative in nature, data go through various phases during a research project : production or collection, processing and analysis, publication and sharing, long-term preservation, etc. These stages always form a cycle, since once published and shared, the data can be reused by others as part of a new research project, thus beginning a new life cycle.

These different phases are accompanied by a set of "good" data management practices that make research data "FAIR", i.e. easily Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable.

The Data Management Plan enables you to plan all the stages in the life cycle of your research data. It prepares your data for sharing, reuse and long-term preservation. It explains how your data will be made "FAIR". The DMP is a living document that should be updated as your research progresses.

Although some Funders (Horizon Europe, FNRS, etc.) make it mandatory to draw up a DMP, it will above all help you plan your research, save time later on, and avoid any potential difficulties !

 

 

(Illustration : The Turing Way Community, & Scriberia. (2021). CC BY 4.0. Zenodo. https://doi.org10.5281zenodo.4906004)

The DMP is a management tool. It prepares all the stages in the life cycle of your research data (collection, processing, analysis, storage, security, sharing, long-term archiving, etc.) in accordance with the “FAIR” principles.

 

It enables you to think about how your data will be made easily findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable, and to prevent potential problems (loss of data, departure of a collaborator and lack of information relating to data coding, poor management of personal data, etc.). The DMP is a living document which is updated throughout the research project.

 

The Data Management Plan generally includes the following elements:

- data collection and/or re-use;
- data documentation and metadata;
- ethical and legal issues;
- data storage and backup during the project;
- selecting the data to be published and shared at the end of the project;
- sharing data via a Data Repository;
- data management responsibilities;
- the resources required.

Data management plans (DMPs) are increasingly required by funding bodies (Horizon Europe, ERC, FNRS, etc.). Although they are often perceived as an additional administrative workload for researchers, they nevertheless offer a number of advantages throughout a research project.

 

1. The DMP is the backbone of your research project and will guide its entire organisation.

2. You and your research partners can always refer to it. It provides a common, written understanding of each stage of the project. For example:

- It provides common guidelines for data collection;

- It helps to meet ethical and legal requirements;

- It provides common guidelines for file naming and database structure, as well as for data quality assessment;

- It provides secure data storage facilities and strategies. It improves risk management and prevents data loss;

- It gets you thinking about data sharing and how to organise it in advance.

3.    By defining each person's responsibilities, it makes it possible to deal with the departure of a researcher.

4.    Although it is drawn up at the start of the project, it is a living document that is adapted and updated over the course of the project.

5. Finally, once it has been drawn up at the start of the project, the DMP will save you time at later stages. On the one hand, you can refer to it during the project, so that the procedures only have to be followed. On the other hand, it's a useful basis for writing reports or methods in an article.

 

At UCLouvain you can create your data management plan (DMP), based on the templates of the various funding bodies or the UCLouvain template, via DMPonline.