A data management plan (DMP) is an important part of Research data management (RDM) and an essential tool for following good research practices and opening up your data. It is a formal document that specifies what and how the research data will be are handled for the project and identifies the key actions for ethical and legal compliance and FAIR data production before, during, and after your research project.
More and more research funders require a written DMP, even several versions at different stages of your research. A DMP can be required as part of the funding application process (e.g., by Business Finland), after a positive funding decision (e.g., by the Research Council of Finland, formerly the Academy of Finland), or during the first six months of the project (e.g., by Horizon Europe).
A researcher carrying out research creates a DMP before he/she starts his/her research project, and update it when necessary during and after the research project. It is a living document that accompanies the whole research life cycle, even after the active phase of the research project.
A DMP is a document completing your research plan. You can refer from one document to the other in order to avoid overlap between them. The research plan describes the scientific, analytical and methodological processing of data, whereas the DMP describes the technical and administrative management of data.
The DMP ought to cover the collection and processing of data, ethical compliance, assurance of data protection laws, data ownership and rights of use, short-term storage and backup, long-term archival and reuse, metadata production, planned data disposal, and associated resource needs. More information, see the section on DMP guides and checklists.
See the video guide Introduction to data management planning by CSC.
You can use Hanken's DMP template or other Public DMP templates (with Hanken's DMP guidance integrated) in DMPTuuli to help you write and update a DMP. Please see DMPTuuli with Hanken's DMP guidance and DMP template in the next section to learn how to get access to Hanken's DMP template and guidance.
The tool DMPTuuli is helpful when writing, updating, reviewing, and sharing your DMP. DMPTuuli is part of the Open Science and Research (ATT) project, maintained by CSC and launched by the Ministry of Education and Culture. It offers a Finnish national central channel for guidance and support for writing a DMP at all stages. You can register and create an account to use it freely.
You can find both Hanken's DMP guidance and Hanken's DMP template in DMPTuuli.
DMPTuuli integrates different funders' DMP instructions and templates and contains useful advice and tips from different organizations such as:
To get access to Hanken's DMP guidance in DMPTuuli, please follow the following steps:
- Open DMPTuuli and register an account with your Haka user account.
- Click “Create plans” on the left upper side. Fill in the information about your research project, and make sure that "Hanken School of Economics" is selected as the primary research organization. A funder's DMP template will be available after the funder is selected under "Select the primary funding organisation." Then click "Create plan."
- Next, on the right side of the page, under "Project details," you find "Select Guidance." Remember to choose "Hanken School of Economics" and click "Save."
- Then under "Write Plan," within each section of a DMP, the content of Hanken’s specific guidance on each topic will show after you click "Hanken" and then "expand all" or the sign "+":
- Do not forget to click “Save” after you finish answering each section.
You can find various Public DMP templates to meet the specific funder requirements on DMPTuuli pages.
Hanken's DMP template has also been integrated in DMPTuuli. When creating a new DMP, select “Hanken School of Economics” as the primary organisation. Then remember to choose "No funder associated with this plan or my funder is not listed." This is especially for research projects which do not have any funders associated or the funders are not listed. Hanken’s DMP template will be available after you click “Create plan.”
Now you can write a DMP under “Write plan” by using Hanken’s DMP template. After clicking each “+” sign, you can see the content and complete the sections of a DMP. Use Hanken's DMP guidance on the right side to help you to complete each section. Remember that the content of Hanken’s specific guidance on each topic will only be shown after you click "Hanken" and then "expand all" or the sign "+" on the right side.
Do not forget to click “Save” after you finish answering each question.
Under "Share," you can share your DMP and send it directly to your research partners. You can choose to grant different permission to each of the partners.
Under "Request feedback," you can request for expert comments and feedback on your DMP.
Although there may be some differences depending on research areas, in general, a DMP will address the following six aspects:
1. General description of data: Data types and formats, estimated data size, and how to control the consistency and quality of data.
Note that it is important to identify all (sensitive) personal data and confidential data types to ensure that sufficient data protection measures are taken and risks involved are minimized.
2. Ethical and legal compliance: Describe how you will maintain high ethical standards and comply with relevant legislation when managing your research data. See Ethical and legal compliance.
3. Documentation and metadata: How to describe your data to make them findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (FAIR) for you and others. See Metadata and data documentation.
4. Data storage and backup during the research project: Where and how to store and back up your data, how to transfer your data securely, and access control. See Data storage, backup and transferral.
5. Data publishing after the research project: What part of the data to be made openly available and published, where and when to make the data or their metadata publicly available. See Data publishing and preservation.
6. Defining roles and responsibilities and estimating resources required for data management: Who are responsible for data management tasks including data collection, metadata production, and data archiving? Who takes care of ethical and legal issues? What are the time periods, workload, and possible costs? See Costs of data management by Utrecht University.
You can use Hanken's DMP template or other Public DMP templates (with Hanken's DMP guidance integrated) in DMPTuuli to help you write and update a DMP. See DMPTuuli with Hanken's DMP guidance and DMP template above to learn how to get access to Hanken's DMP template and guidance.
More information about how to create a DMP, see: