There's a lot that goes into a Data Management Plan (DMP), including many different sections and details. On this page we have links to good resources which will help you in creating your own DMP.

The Tri-Agency policy states that:

"...all DMPs should describe:

• how data will be collected, documented, formatted, protected and preserved;
• how existing datasets will be used and what new data will be created over the course of the research project;
• whether and how data will be shared; and
• where data will be deposited.

DMPs also indicate who is responsible for managing the project’s data, describe the succession plans in place should that person leave the research team, and identify the data-related roles and responsibilities of other team members where appropriate. Finally, DMPs outline ethical, legal and commercial constraints the data are subject to, and methodological considerations that support or preclude data sharing."

General Best Practices:

• Base your DMP on published exemplar DMPs. An exemplar is an example DMP from a particular research project, while the templates are discipline specific documents that will guide you through the DMP creation process and prompt you for specific information to put in the DMP.
  • Check out our DMP Database for a broad collection of over 200 data management plans that have been shared publicly by researchers and funders. These include:
    • The Digital Research Alliance of Canada provides a number of DMP examples and templates for different fields. 
    • Award winning Qualitative DMPs: DMP Competition Winners: DMPs so good they go to 11
• Review your DMP regularly and revise it as you progress through your research project. Remember your DMP is meant to be a living document. When your practices change, make sure you update your DMP.
• Reach out if you need assistance - we're available to consult on DMPs. Email us at rdm@mcmaster.ca or book a consultation.

Data Management Plans in Indigenous Research

Research engaging with or involving Indigenous communities in any way has specific responsibilities. Primarily, data sovereignty is determined by a First Nations, Inuit, or Métis community first. You also have obligations under policy and ethical guidelines, including best practices and requirements for conducting Indigenous research as outlined by Tri-Agency frameworks and, as applicable, institutional policies. 

Thus, a data management plan should be co-developed with the Indigenous communities that your research involves or created by the researcher for approval by the community. Some communities have their own data management protocols that a researcher must complete. If you are creating a DMP for an Indigenous research project or working with Indigenous data, some questions to ask yourself are:

• How will we maintain Indigenous data sovereignty and keep sensitive information safe?
• Are there other things like the law or intellectual property which impact data?
• Are there other documents that will help us, and future participants, understand what we have collected?
• How do we make sure what we’ve gathered is accessible to the community? 

For additional guidence, check out the following resources:

• Recording of a 2023 event: The National Dialogue on Data Management Plans and Indigenous Data. The Tri-Agency notes that "DMPs in the context of research by and with First Nations, Métis and Inuit communities, collectives and organizations should recognize Indigenous data sovereignty and include options for renegotiation of the DMP."
• McMaster Indigenous Research Institute's Indigenous Research Primer
• Canadian Research Data Centre Network (CRDCN) Resource for Researchers: Planning to undertake work with First Nations, Inuit, and Metis data

Read on below for guidance with the different sections of a DMP:

The Tri-Agency Research Data Management Policy was announced on March 15, 2021. The Tri-Agencies seek to build a research culture that recognizes data management as a key element of research excellence and to see Canadian researchers recognized and rewarded for the data they create. There will be an incremental approach taken to policy implementation. The policy has 3 main pillars - one requirement for institutions and two for researchers:

1. Institutional Strategy for Research Data Management

   A cross-campus Institutional Research Data Management Strategy Working Group will be consulting with researchers and research support units to develop a draft policy that will be reviewed by IT Governance. For more details on the working group click here.

2. Data Management Plan requirement for grant applicants.

   For certain funding opportunities, the agencies will require data management plans (DMPs) to be submitted to the appropriate agency at the time of application. The initial set of grants requiring DMPs will be announced in Spring 2022. 

3. Data Deposit requirement for grant recipients.

   Grant recipients are required to deposit into a digital repository all digital research data, metadata and code that directly support the research conclusions in journal publications and pre-prints that arise from agency-supported research. 

   The deposit must be made by time of publication. The choice of repository may be guided by disciplinary expectations and the recipient’s own judgment, but in all cases the repository must ensure safe storage, preservation and curation of the data.

   Grant recipients are not required to share their data.

   For research conducted by and with First Nations, Métis and Inuit communities, collectives and organizations, these communities, collectives or organizations will guide and ultimately determine how the data are collected, used and preserved, and have the right to repatriate the data. This could result in exceptions to the data deposit requirement.

Until the new Tri-Agency policy is phased in, existing data preservation policies still apply

SSHRC (Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council) has a Research Data Archiving Policy specifying that:

• All research data collected with the use of SSHRC funds must be preserved and made available for use by others within a reasonable period of time. SSHRC considers "a reasonable period" to be within two years of the completion of the research project.

CIHR (Canadian Institutes of Health Research) has some requirements under the Tri-Agency Open Access Policy that indicates researchers must:

• Retain original data sets for a minimum of five years after the end of the grant
• Deposit bioinformatics, atomic, and molecular coordinate data into the appropriate public database immediately upon publication of research results. The acceptable databases can be found here.

If you're building a Data Management Plan in alignment with a grant, you might want to consider working appropriate costs for research data management into your budget. This is especially pertinent in long-term and and infrastructure-related grants, such as Canadian Foundation for Innovation grants in the Sustainability section, or for NIH grants, which directly include data management costs.

Applicants are encouraged to reference the support of Research Data Management Services for RDM training, Data Management Plan review, and data curation support. Contact rdm@mcmaster.ca to discuss what in-kind resources you can include. 

Other resources to help estimate budgeting for Information Security and Data Management:

• National Institutes of Health – Budgeting for Data Management and Sharing
• National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine - "Forecasting Costs for Preserving, Archiving, and Promoting Access to Biomedical Data"
• Trisha Cruse, DataONE (September 01, 2011) "Best Practice: Provide budget information for your data management plan". Accessed through the Data Management Skillbuilding Hub at https://dataoneorg.github.io/Education/bestpractices/provide-budget-information on Aug 31, 2020
• OpenAIRE has a cost estimator tool with hours and approximate rates that can be helpful
• Edward G. Miner Library in Rochester has a handy excel file to outline costs.
• If you are working with Indigenous research please see the Indigenous Data Governance and Management Toolkit around costs for IT resources.