GFBio aims at supporting to support individual researchers, research groups, and large projects to develop in developing and implement implementing effective data management strategies for FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Re-usableReusable) data as , as part of good scientific practice.
A well-structured Data Management Plan (DMP) clarifies how and what data will be created, processed, and documented. It names Its name means data archiving and publication regarding costs as well as access conditions for the scientific community and the public. In short, a DMP helps you to ask all the right questions concerning data management. Also,
DMPs are increasingly required as a mandatory proposal part by research institutions and funding agencies. By writing a DMP, you save a lot of time in the long run, you are aware of potential data management challenges and obstacles, and you increase the transparency as well as and the integrity of your work.
In this howHow-to, you learn about preparing a data management plan DMP with the GFBio Data Management Plan Tool (DMPT) and about the services GFBio offers to support you.
Step by steptowards your
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DMP creation (original template: step-by-step guide)
Step 1 -
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Collect general information about your project
Collect general information about your project right at the beginning. Besides the project name and the people involved, you already give a first impression of the research data you will produce.
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Funders, as well as institutions or publishers, may also have their own policies and guidelines for data management. You do not need to know all the details of these at the beginning of data management planning, but it is important to know the requirements and to document them. If you are unsure which policies or guidelines you have to stick to, just let us know,w and we can support you in identifying them.
Step 2 - Describe the data you will collect and your methods for data collection
Text files, code, GIS, numeric and molecular data, or multimedia files – depending on your research questions and methods, you create different types of data. In environmental and ecological research, it is common to have more than one data type. Studies and projects are a complex composition of various methods. If you are an experienced researcher in your field, you might already have an idea of the data formats (e.g., xlsx, shp) you will create. In this case, you can specify your data types even to the data formats. Please document data types and formats as detailed as possible when sending us your DMP support request. The more information we get, the better we can support you in data management planning.
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Working in environmental sciences often implies the collection of physical objects, which in some cases have to be archived as well. In GFBio, you have the possibility to submit and archive several kinds of objects related to your research data. By means of some basic questions on them (integrated in the DMPT), we can estimate if your physical objects can be archived in GFBio. Your DMP should also contain notice if you are working with sequence data, as it requires special expertise and has to follow certain standards.
Step 3 - Say something about the way you will describe your data (metadata)
Have you already thought about metadata?
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Also, have a look at our data life cycle fact sheet Describe.
Step 4 - Think about ethics and legal aspects
In some cases, data cannot or should not be published immediately when submitting to an archive. One possible reason might be that you collect research data within the scope of your PhD thesis, and you have to publish your studies before making data available for others. In this case, you can define access restrictions for your research data. This means you can already submit your data to a public archive and get an identifier for them (e.g., DOI) – which makes them citable and reusable - even though you don't want your data to be published immediately.
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Conscientious data management implies licensing your data. GFBio supports the idea of open access to research data. But open access does not mean everyone can use your data at will. Data can (or must) be cited in the same manner as publications. Licenses, such as the Creative Commons licenses, define citation demands as well as further terms of use, for example, if the data may be transformed.
Step 5 - Outline the preservation and sharing of your data and metadata
Design a plan for data backup. Which technologies in which locations will be used to store your data? Are there regular backup routines, or will you back up manually? Who is responsible for data backup, and which service providers (e.g,. local IT support) are involved?
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Find more information on data preservation in our data life cycle fact sheets Preserve and Submit.
Step 6 - Connect with us – GFBio DMP support
You can contact us anytime and ask your questions. In case of DMP support requests, we recommend filling in the DMPT as far as possible and then sending a support request (you will find a button at the end of the tool). We will then contact you to talk about open questions. In your support request, you can also inform us of any questions you have or the specific aspect of the DMP for which you require further information and support.
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