Project planning:
Research data definition
There are numerous definitions of research data. In general, research data includes all data that arise during the research process (e.g. with measurements, surveys, work with sources), that can be used as a basis for scientific research (e.g. digital copies), or that are the result of scientific work.
More information can be found here: How does RDM start?
Funders' requirements (EU, DFG, BMBF)
National and international funding organizations increasingly require detailed information about how research data arising from research projects are handled and, in part, are also requiring open access to data relevant to publications.
- European Commission (Horizon Europe): Provision of a data management plan when submitting an application; Guidelines on FAIR data management
- DFG (German Research Foundation): see here for information on: Managing research data, checklist, Guidelines for submitting project proposals (03/2022)
- BMBF (Federal Ministry of Education and Research): Announcement,
Further information can be found on the information platform Forschungsdaten.info under Funding guidelines.
Costs for FDM can usually be requested at the time of application. You can find an overview of costs here: FDM budget planning
Publishers’ requirements
Publishers are also increasingly including “data sharing policies” requiring those research data to be published or provided that are used as a basis for the publication in a scientific journal. Please check the requirements before publication.
Examples of data policies from academic journals:
- Nature: Availability of Data, Material and Methods Policy
- Science: Data and Materials Availability Policy and Preparing Your Supplementary Materials
- BioMed Central: Availability of supporting data
- Elsevier: Research data Policy and Text and Data Mining Policy
- List of selected social science journals
- List of journals with open-data policies
More information can be found here: Guidelines and policies
Creating a data management plan (DMP)
A data management plan (DMP) enables you to manage all your research data along a data life cycle, that is, from collection to archiving. DMP checklists and DMP tools can make it easier for you to get started with research data management. Using a question catalog, you are led through a DMP. Resources for creating a DMP: DMP tools and DMP checklists
- DMPonline, the DMP tool of the British Digital Curation Centre with templates for the EU H2020
- RDMO (Research Data Management Organiser), developed by AIP with reference to the Wissgrid checklist with templates for DFG, BMBF, and EU H2020 (soon available in the β-version on forschungsdaten.info)
- DMP checklists, Data Management Wizard (KomFor)
DMP examples
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