A data management plan or DMP is a formal document that outlines how
data
In the pursuit of knowledge, data (; ) is a collection of discrete values that convey information, describing quantity, quality, fact, statistics, other basic units of meaning, or simply sequences of symbols that may be further interpret ...
are to be handled both during a research project, and after the
project
A project is any undertaking, carried out individually or collaboratively and possibly involving research or design, that is carefully planned to achieve a particular goal.
An alternative view sees a project managerially as a sequence of even ...
is completed. The goal of a data management plan is to consider the many aspects of
data management
Data management comprises all disciplines related to handling data as a valuable resource.
Concept
The concept of data management arose in the 1980s as technology moved from sequential processing (first punched cards, then magnetic tape) to ...
,
metadata generation, data preservation, and analysis before the project begins;
this may lead to data being well-managed in the present, and prepared for preservation in the future.
DMPs were originally used in 1966 to manage aeronautical and engineering projects'
data collection
Data collection or data gathering is the process of gathering and measuring information on targeted variables in an established system, which then enables one to answer relevant questions and evaluate outcomes. Data collection is a research com ...
and analysis, and expanded across engineering and scientific disciplines in the 1970s and 1980s. Up until the early 2000s, DMPs were used "for projects of great technical complexity, and for limited mid-study data collection and processing purposes".
[ In the 2000s and later, ]E-research
The term e-Research (alternately spelled eResearch) refers to the use of information technology to support existing and new forms of research. This extends cyber-infrastructure practices established in STEM fields such as e-Science to cover othe ...
and economic policies drove the development and uptake of DMPs.[
]
Importance
Preparing a data management plan before data are collected is claimed to ensure that data are in the correct format, organized well, and better annotated. This could arguably save time in the long term because there is no need to re-organize, re-format, or try to remember details about data. It is also claimed to increase research efficiency since both the data collector and other researchers might be able to understand and use well-annotated data in the future. One component of a data management plan is data archiving and preservation. By deciding on an archive ahead of time, the data collector can format data during colle