DMPTool2: Improvements and Outreach

Session Type: Working Session

Session Description
A growing number of US federal funding agencies require data management plans (DMP) as part of new research grant proposals. To help researchers with this requirement, several organizations (the California Digital Library, University of Illinois, University of Virginia, Smithsonian Institution, the DataONE consortium and the (UK) Digital Curation Centre) came together to develop the DMPTool in 2011. The goal of the DMPTool is to provide researchers with guidance, links to resources and help with writing data management plans. Thanks to a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, these organizations have been able to develop DMPTool2, adding new features and functionality, while aiming to grow the number of users and funding requirements and build a community around DMP best practices.

Researchers create plans in the tool by selecting their desired funding agency. The tool provides specific requirements from the selected agency as well as detailed help with each area of the plan. Users have access to complete DMP life cycle management, tracking changes through creation, editing, submission, evaluation, and publication. They may also perform enhanced keyword searches and view publicly available plans. With role-based user authorization, users may hold various roles within the interface: creators, collaborators, institutional administrators, and tool administrators. Furthermore, partner institutions can add significant value to the process with several special tool features. Along with institutional branding in the interface, they can provide links to resources they provide to users, such as to preservation repositories, consultation services, or news and event items. In addition, partner institutions can provide help with specific plan questions, and even suggest responses. Institutional administrators can also mine data on plans in order to better support researchers. Institutions may be represented in different roles: as a funder, a researcher’s affiliate, or as an institution with its own DMP requirements.

In this working session, the leaders seek input from attendees in framing the direction of the where the project goes next. This includes, but is not limited to: new functionality, opportunities for integration with other systems, processes, and services, sustainability, and expanding the user base and institutional participation.

Session Leaders
Sherry Lake, University of Virginia
Marisa Strong, California Digital Library
Stephen Abrams, California Digital Library
Sarah Shreeves, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign
Dan Phipps, California Digital Library
Perry Willet, California Digital Library

View the community reporting Google doc for this session.

View the slides.

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