Introduction

The National Science Foundation (NSF) requires all proposals to include a data management plan.  This plan details how the researcher will share data and other relevant materials at no more than incremental cost.  The plan is to be no more than 2 pages and must address two topics:

• What data are generated by the research
• How the data will be managed and eventually shared

The plan, along with the proposal, will be evaluated on the basis of the practices of the discipline.  Evaluation will also take place during the annual review process and following project completion.  Proposals without plans will not be reviewed.

The official NSF requirements are available here.

Duke-specific guidance on how to write your NSF Data Management Plan can be found in this PDF document. 

A Data Management Planning Tool is also available to help write your data management plan. It provides web-based templates tailored to specific funding agencies and the ability to export the resulting plan to your word processor or as a PDF.

Management Plan Details

The plan should articulate how the Principal Investigator (PI) plans to disseminate the primary data.  Data sharing encompasses many issues, including

• The rights and obligations of all parties regarding data access, management and retention, including other researchers and the home institution
• Changes to management responsibilities in the event of any change in PIs or home institutions
• Any costs associated with data management and retention, as explained in the Budget Justification
• Any conditions to data sharing, including embargoes, access restrictions, and data aggregation for protection of confidentiality
• Copyright and intellectual property issues arising from the use of proprietary data or information
• The duration of data retention as required by the home institution, granting agency, or other party
• The method of data retention, including specific repositories or sites if available
• The formats of shared data, including changes introduced to protect confidentiality or intellectual property
• Any other management or retention requirements more stringent and specific to a project, data source, or institution

What Do I Need to Deliver during the Grant?

Annual reports must provide information regarding management plan implementation, such as relevant citations, conference proceedings, and other types of results dissemination 

Final project reports should describe the data produced, the raw data to be retained, and associated supporting documentation, how data will be verifiably disseminated, the format in which the data will be available, and the metadata if applicable.  In addition, discussion of community standards for the data format is expected as context for the dissemination efforts of the project. 

Subsequent proposals must report data management under Results of prior NSF support.

 

More details on requirements from particular NSF directorates

Specific requirements vary substantially across disciplines.  Each NSF Directorate provides more specific guidance and resources for writing management plans.

• Engineering
  • Data Management for NSF Engineering Directorate: Proposals and Awards
  • NSF Engineering Directorate, data management web page
• Geological Sciences
  • Directorate for Geosciences -- Data Policies web page
  • NSF, Division of Earth Sciences statement on data sharing policy
  • Division of Ocean Sciences: Data and Sample Policy
  • Integrated Ocean Drilling Program: Sample, Data, and Obligations
• Mathematical and Physical Sciences
  • Directorate of Mathematical and Physical Sciences: Advice to PIs on Data Management Plans
• Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences
  • Data Management for NSF SBE Directorate: Proposals and Awards