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Workshop Title Slide

Getting started with Data Management Plans.

Data Management Plans (DMPs) are documents about how you will care for your research data, from the initial planning stages to what will happen to it when the project is over. They are both incredibly helpful research tools and increasingly required for grants. However, it can hard to know how to complete a Data Management Plan if it’s your first time. This asynchronous module is intended for faculty, staff, and student researchers creating a DMP for the first time who need to know a bit more about what should be included in each section and why that section is important. This module will introduce best practices of data management planning and introduce learners to DMP Assistant, a web-based tool for developing and collaborating on Data Management Plans.

Asynchronous module developed by Sharon Peter, building on content by Danica Evering and Isaac Pratt.

Prerequisites

Before starting your project, gather key information and resources related to your data management practices. Remember that data management plans are a “living document” which are updated regularly in conversation with team members over the course of the project. Here are some things to consider before starting a project!

  • Have access to any data-related information needed for making your plan
  • Consult with your colleagues, co-PIs, data related-research staff, or supervisor
  • If you are working on your own research project, prepare for an ethics application and set out systems for yourself
  • If you’re contributing to an existing project, you might want to ask for access to ethics applications, security measures, consent forms, study protocols, backup systems, storage locations, data types, and any other documentation

Outline

Context: What is a Data Management Plan? We’ll start with an overview of what a data management plan is and what our goals are.

Account setup: Set up your account in DMP Assistant

Work on DMP Sections: Once you’ve created an account, we’ll give you the information you need to complete each of the five sections.

  1. Responsibility: Ethical, legal, and commercial
  2. Data Collection: Describe sources and formats
  3. Documentation: Organize data and make it understandable and reproducible
  4. Active Data Management: Storage, security, access, and backups
  5. Long-Term Data Management: Deposit and retention for future discoverability and accessibility.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this session, participants will be able to:

  • Identify the 5 key components of a data management plan (DMP).
  • Compare strong and weak responses in each section of a DMP.
  • Develop a tailored outline, or potentially a complete draft, of their own DMP!

Duration

Creating your Data Management Plan will take around 2-3 hours to do thoughtfully, however feel free to work at your own pace!

Land Acknowledgement

RDM Services is based at McMaster University in Ohròn:wakon (in the ditch, ravine), traditional territory the Mississauga and Haudenosaunee nations. The Silver Covenant Chain Wampum, formalized alliances between the Indigenous people and European leadership across Canada and the US. In this place, it was part of the 1764 Treaty of Niagara. This wampum shows two figures connected by a silver chain, symbolizing friendship and alliance. The silver chain is stronger than iron, so it won’t rust. However, it does carry responsibilities: it needs to be polished, lest it be tarnished. It is essential to Indigenous-Crown nation-to-nation relationships, mandating non-interference and the recognition of Indigenous sovereignty.

In relation to research data management, researchers are responsible for essential protocols for Indigenous Data Sovereignty. Research by and with Indigenous data has additional protocols, and communities’ stakeholders are in control of preservation, custodianship, and any sharing. The First Nations Information Governance Centre’s Fundamentals of OCAP® course, which stands for Ownership, Control, Access, and Possession, gives a good introduction. Indigenous communities engaging in research should be involved in creating a Data Management Plan. Self-Governing Indigenous Governments have also developed a really useful toolkit for Data Governance and Management. Locally, McMaster Indigenous Research Institute (MIRI) has a McMaster Indigenous Research Primer which guides those who are engaging with Indigenous Peoples and their work.