Published: 2022-04-08

Guidance for writing a data management plan

NEWS Writing a data management plan is an integral part of the research process but can be challenging. There is now a new guide (in Swedish) from the Swedish Research Council to help you write a data management plan according to their template. You can also use the guidance when using one of the university's templates in DMP online.

Text: Saga Nylund

Writing a data management plan (DMP) has become an increasingly important part of the research process. Several Swedish and international funding bodies require a data management plan to be drawn up within a research project. It is recommended to write a data management plan even when not required, and the plan can serve as a support in managing research data.

If you have any questions about data management plans, don't hesitate to contact the library's research data team by selecting the category "Publishing, theses and research data" in the library's contact form.

Guidance for writing a data management plan

The Swedish Research Council (VR) has produced a supplementary guide to its template for data management plans. The guidance is intended to make it easier to understand what is required in a data management plan through guiding questions and examples. It is partly a translation of Science Europe's guide to data management plans but has been adapted and clarified based on Swedish conditions, in issues such as legislation or storage.

The template for data management plans developed by the Swedish Research Council and SUHF (the Association of Swedish Higher Education Institutions) is based on the Science Europe Core Requirements for research data.

Guidance to the VR template (in Swedish)

Create your data management plan in DMP online

As an employee at Umeå University, you have access to the DMP online tool, where you can find more guidance on writing data management plans. You can easily create your data management plan in DMP online based on a template of your choice. In addition to templates from various funding agencies, there are several templates developed at Umeå University, including templates adapted for the Chemical Biological Centre (KBC) and question-based templates that adapt to your answers. All Umu templates meet the basic requirements of Science Europe and thus also the guidelines of the Swedish Research Council for data management plans.