Data Management Plans

Data Management Plans typically provide a short description of the data, including amount (if known) and content. Note if the project will be collecting data of a sensitive nature. Data types could include text, spreadsheets, images, 3D models, software, audio files, video files, reports, surveys, patient records, etc.

Consider these questions:

• What data will be generated in the research?
• What data types will you be creating or capturing?
• Who will be responsible for managing the data?
• How will you capture or create the data?
• If you will be using existing data, state that fact and include where you got it.
• What is the relationship between the data you are collecting and the existing data?

Data, a collection of facts from which conclusions may be drawn, can take many forms. Here are a few examples of the digital data forms and common file formats:

• Text (e.g. doc, txt, pdf)
• Numerical (e.g. SPSS, STATA, .xls, Access, MySQL)
• Multimedia (e.g. jpeg, tiff, wav, mpeg, quicktime)
• Models (e.g. 3D, statistical)
• Software (e.g. Java, C)
• Domain-specific (e.g. FITS in astronomy, CIF in chemistry)
• Instrument-specific (e.g. Olympus Confocal Microscope Data Format)