Examples
Worked examples
- Is an instance
A Horizon Europe project DMP delivered at month 6, updated at month 18, and finalised at project end.
- Is an instance
An NIH-funded study's Data Management and Sharing Plan submitted with the grant application.
Counter-examples
Looks similar, but isn't
- Not an instance
A README file inside a code repository (documents one dataset, not a project-wide management strategy).
- Not an instance
An institutional data policy (applies to all staff, not a single project).
Editorial commentary
A Data Management Plan (DMP) is a required condition of award at most major research funders and many institutions, setting out how a project’s research data will be handled across its life. A DMP typically covers: the types and expected volume of data to be generated or reused; the metadata standards and file formats used to describe it; ethical, legal, or Indigenous-data-governance constraints on sharing; storage, backup, and security arrangements during the project; who is responsible for which data-management task and what resources that requires; access and sharing arrangements once outputs are shared or published; and long-term preservation, including where data will be deposited and for how long.
Format is shifting
DMPs were historically authored as free-text narrative documents (PDF or DOCX) written once at proposal stage and rarely revisited. They are increasingly produced instead through structured online tools (e.g., DMPTool, DMPonline) and exported in a machine-actionable format that a repository, funder system, or institutional research-information system can read and validate directly, rather than a human having to re-key the same information elsewhere.
This page is the umbrella term — see these for specific stages and requirements
CASRAI documents several more specific DMP-related concepts as their own entries rather than folding them into this one: DMP active phase (how a DMP is meant to be used and revisited during the live project, not just written once at the start); machine-actionable DMP (maDMP) (the structured, system-readable format itself); climate impact statement (in DMP) (an environmental-impact disclosure some funders now require alongside the DMP); and sensitive-data handling (in DMP) (the specific provisions a DMP must make when the data itself is sensitive — personal, commercially confidential, or otherwise restricted). A DMP is also typically cross-referenced from, and consistent with, a project’s broader project plan.
References
- Science Europe, Practical Guide to the International Alignment of Research Data Management (2021); NIH Data Management and Sharing Policy (NOT-OD-21-013); Horizon Europe DMP template.
Also known as
DMP · data management and sharing plan · DMSP
Machine-readable encodings
Use in your systems
<role vocab="credit"
vocab-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/"
vocab-term="Data Management Plan (DMP)"
vocab-term-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/data-management-plan-dmp" />{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "DefinedTerm",
"@id": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/data-management-plan-dmp",
"name": "Data Management Plan (DMP)",
"identifier": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/data-management-plan-dmp",
"description": "A Data Management Plan (DMP) is a required condition of award at most major research funders and many institutions, setting out how a project's research data will be handled across its life: data types and volume, metadata standards, storage/security, access and sharing, and long-term preservation. It is the umbrella term for a family of more specific CASRAI entries covering the DMP active phase, machine-actionable DMP (maDMP) format, climate impact statements in a DMP, and sensitive-data handling in a DMP.",
"inDefinedTermSet": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/domain/machine-actionable-dmps#set",
"url": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/data-management-plan-dmp",
"sameAs": [
"DMP",
"data management and sharing plan",
"DMSP"
],
"license": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
"publisher": {
"@id": "https://casrai.org/#organization"
},
"author": {
"@id": "https://casrai.org/#editorial-team"
},
"datePublished": "2026-05-21T02:22:48",
"dateModified": "2026-08-25T06:28:43",
"inLanguage": "en-GB",
"isAccessibleForFree": true
}
