Are you a lone researcher or part of a team?

• If in a team, who is doing what and what are the specialisms of the team?
• Does anyone have overall responsibility for maintaining the data management plan?

How often will the plan be reviewed and updated? (You should update the plan if you change any processes.)

• Will you keep the different versions of the plan you might create? (This is recommended.)

What data are you using to answer your research question?

• If using pre-existing data, how will you find it?
• If you are creating new data, why do you need to do this? Is there a gap in the existing data that needs to be filled?

What types of data will you be using?

• What format will the data be stored in, e.g. physical or digital?
• If digital what file formats will you generate?

What volume of data are you likely to create? To estimate digital volumes, try finding a comparable file as a guide.

It is strongly recommended that data is documented to explain who created the data, where and when it was created, the methods and software used. This documentation can be presented as a separate file or embedded in existing files. However be careful that your documentation meets the requirements of data protection legislation and/or the consent you have from participants.

You can read more about how and where to find data for re-use on our Finding and reusing data page.

For more information about organising and documenting your data, take a look at our Working with your data page.  

Data storage and backup requires that you think about how you keep your data secure to avoid data loss, but also to meet any legal and ethical responsibilities you might have.

During the project where will you keep the data you collect?

• If you are collecting data in a physical format, where will you store it? How will you keep the data secure and safe from disaster?
• Who manages the space where your digital data is stored? How often do they backup the files in their system?

How will you make your data easy to retrieve? For digital data, it is recommended to choose a consistent filename format that includes data about what is in the file, as well as creating file hierarchies with folders.

Is any of your data sensitive?

• Who will be permitted to have access to the data?
• How will you manage access?
• Do you need to encrypt your data?
• How will you comply with data protection legislation?

How will you back up your data to avoid loss? It is generally recommended that you keep 3 copies of data, with at least one of the copies stored in a different place to the others to minimise the chance of losing all copies at once.

How often will you back up data? Will you back up all data on a regular basis, or only those files that have been altered?

For more information about keeping your data secure, take a look at our Working with your data page.

Alongside any publications you might create as a result of your research, increasingly funders are requesting that the data underlying your findings are released in the interests of open research. You will need to consider how you will share your data:

• What is the value of your data in terms of yourself and others?
• Can you think of other use cases for the data, beyond your initial research project? If so, how will you facilitate these uses?
• Do you have any commercially sensitive data? If so, will you need to withhold your data for an embargo period?
• Have you ensured that you are complying with relevant legislation, such as data protection?
• If you have used third party data in your datasets, do you have permission to share it? If not, can you share your own data and direct people toward the third party data?

Will you share the data openly? If so how will you licence the data?

• Where will you share your data?
• Will you use a data repository? If so, which one?
• What format will you share your data in?
• If you will not share data openly how will you manage access to the data? Will you allow any use of the data at all?

How long do you need to keep the data for? Will your chosen repository hold the data for that long? If not, do you have other options?

How will you ensure that the data remains accessible? Some repositories include preservation services that will migrate data to the latest file formats automatically to ensure that people can continue to access the data. In some circumstances you may need to provide access to the software that the data files can be accessed in.

For more information about sharing and preservation, take a look at our Preserving and Sharing your Data page.