NIH Data Management & Sharing Plan (DMSP)

The DMPTool is a free, open-source, online application that helps researchers create data management plans. These plans, or DMPs, are now required by many funding agencies as part of the grant proposal submission process.

The DMPTool provides a click-through wizard for creating a DMP that complies with funder requirements. It also has direct links to funder websites, help text for answering questions, and resources for best practices surrounding data management.

Data management plans (DMPs) are documents prepared by researchers as they are planning a project and writing a grant proposal. DMPs typically address

• The types of data to be collected
• Data format, including data and metadata standards
• Plans for sharing data, including policies affecting access and reuse of the data by other researchers
• Plans for archiving and preserving the data

More guidance on what should go into a DMP can be found at

• Data Management Plan (Harvard Biomedical Data Management)
• Data Management for the Sciences (UCLA Library)
• Elements of a Data Management Plan (ICPSR: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research)
• Framework for Creating a Data Management Plan (ICPSR: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research)
• Write a data management plan (MIT Libraries: Data management)
• Data Management Planning (Data One)