DMP is a formaldocument to be created by principal investigators and research team members at the proposal stage of a research project, which outlines the types and scope of data for the project and how the data will be collected, created, organized, and utilized.
🔎The DMP topics
Click on a circle to explore the details of each DMP topic!
🔎Good Practices for developing and maintaining DMPs
Prepare early
A DMP is not only a blueprint for the success of managing your research data, but also an indispensable manual and documentation for the data to be easily understood, accessed, and reused by other stakeholders. It is recommended to prepare the DMP at the early stages of your research.
Keep updated
It is highly recommended for researchers to review and update the DMP regularly throughout and beyond the project lifecycle to make it a living document.
Utilize online tools to develop machine-actionable DMPs
Although DMPs can be written in free-text style, machine-actionable DMPs (maDMPs) are more FAIR compliant and interoperable across different machine platforms (e.g., by using the JSON format DMPs). After registration of DMPs with the assignment of persistent identifiers (DMP IDs or DOIs), the DMPs can link and integrate with the Current Research Information System (CRIS), datasets, and other research outputs. Hence, all your research deliverables are complete, properly recorded and interlinked.
Moreover, machine-actionable DMPs can facilitate other stakeholders to discover, access, and operate the DMPs. The following two online DMP Writing Platforms are widely adopted for developing maDMPs:
For enquiries, please contact the Library's Research Data Management Services of the Research Support and Scholarly Communication Section at lbrdms@cityu.edu.hk
Compliance with Funders' and Journal Publishers' Requirements
Meeting Funding Conditions
The prevailing trend is that more funders, especially those in the US and UK, require researchers to submit DMPs along with research proposals upon fund applications. The move is to ensure that the valuable data can be reused by other research groups to maximize the return on investment on their funded projects.
In Hong Kong, although the Research Grants Council (RGC) has not yet required researchers for mandatory submissions of DMPs with research grant applications, it targeted enforcement at any time within the launch of the RGC OA Plan - Phase II (Feb 2024 - Oct 2026).
The RGC also stipulates in its fund application guidelines that “Principal Investigators should assess data archive potential and opportunities for data sharing. Due additional weight will be given to an application where the applicants are willing to make research data available to others.” Having proper DMPs in place will further demonstrate the readiness of your data to be accessed and shared by others.
Adhering to Journal Requirements
Usually, articles will attract more citations when they come with relevant, openly accessible data. Hence, journal publishers will be inclined to require researchers to deposit data in an open data repository to enhance the visibility and, ultimately, the impact of their journals. A well-structured DMP is necessary to manage the open access of data effectively and securely.
Benefits Arising from better Data Management throughout the Research Project Lifecycle
Ensuring Data Organization and Structure
A DMP is an ongoing living documentation that provides up-to-date and reliable information throughout and beyond the project lifecycle. It acts like a checklist to ensure that all aspects of data management are thoroughly considered - how data will be collected, processed, analyzed, and stored. This helps maintain a structured and organized approach to handling data throughout the research project.
Guaranteeing Data Quality and Integrity
By establishing industrial standards, protocols, and best practices for data collection, ingestion, processing, curating, and management, a DMP ensures data quality, integrity, accuracy, completeness, consistency and reliability, which are fundamental for producing valid research results.
Documenting Roles and Responsibilities
By defining specific roles and responsibilities for data management tasks, a DMP ensures that all team members understand their duties, which enhances accountability and efficiency.
Enhancing Data Security and Privacy
A DMP addresses issues related to data security and confidentiality, outlining measures to protect sensitive or confidential information from unauthorized access or breaches.
Ensuring Data Custodian and Governance
A DMP includes protocols for data backup and storage, reducing the risk of data loss and ensuring that data is not duplicated unnecessarily.
Assisting Cost and Resource Planning
A DMP is a tool to assist resource allocation and budget planning by breaking down the components into data storage, software acquisition, manpower, etc. By planning data management from the outset, potential issues can be anticipated and mitigated, saving time and resources in the long run.
Enhancing Visibility, Impact, and Value of the Research
Long-term Preservation and Accessibility
Planning for long-term data preservation ensures that data remains accessible and usable for future research, verification, and replication. This contributes to the lasting impact and utility of the research.
Collaboration
With a DMP, potential collaborators can easily grasp essential information about the research data (data format, structure, storage, access methodology, sharing policies, etc.) via well-structured documentation and common languages.
Aligns with Open Science Practices
A DMP supports the principles of open science by promoting data sharing, transparency, and accessibility, which contributes to the broader scientific community.
Maximizes Research Impact
By enhancing data quality, accessibility, and sharing, a DMP increases the visibility and usability of the data. This can lead to more citations, collaborations, and applications of the research, thereby maximizing its impact on the scientific community and beyond.
For enquiries, please contact the Library's Research Data Management Services of the Research Support and Scholarly Communication Section at lbrdms@cityu.edu.hk
How to optimize your efforts in developing DMPs?
✔ Always utilize anonline DMP writing tool ⟹
Choose an appropriate template, utilize a click-through wizard, and refer to relevant topic guidance
Advantages of using an online DMP writing tool
Streamlining the process
Captures the necessary metadata of DMPs
A step-by-step wizard to guide you to address the data management topics one by one
Utilize Templates and make reference to Publicly Shared DMPs
Generic, Funders, and Subject-specific DMP templates for adoption
Public DMPs (usually from other institutions) and DMPs shared by CityUHK researchers for reference
DMPs are stored on the DMPTool online platform for easy maintenance, collaboration, and sharing with stakeholders conveniently
A downloading function for delivering DMPs in various formats, viz., PDF, JSON, HTML, etc.
Quality Assurance
Enrich the data management aspects by preset questions, sample answers, and themed guidance
Ensure the completeness of the DMPs
Linking DMPs to your research profile
Registration of DMPs with the assignment of Persistent Identifiers / Digital Object Identifiers
To facilitate researchers to expedite the DMP development, the Library customized the DMPTool platform with
The Single Sign-On (SSO) feature
A generic CityUHK DMP template with guided questions and sample answers
Tailor-made themed guidance on the key data management aspects
Dealing with funder and subject-specific templates
Funders and journal publishers may mandate researchers to follow their DMP templates, requiring specific scopes of information, topics, and even styles to be included and followed in the DMPs (e.g., specific fields, formatting style, page limit, etc.) You can download their templates on their websites, or, simply choose and adopt the specified DMP templates which are generally available on online DMP writing platforms, e.g., the DMPTool.
For enquiries, please contact the Library's Research Data Management Services of the Research Support and Scholarly Communication Section at lbrdms@cityu.edu.hk
What's DMP? 
For enquiries, please contact the Library's Research Data Management Services of the Research Support and Scholarly Communication Section at lbrdms@cityu.edu.hk
Compliance with Funders' and Journal Publishers' Requirements 
Benefits Arising from better Data Management throughout the Research Project Lifecycle
Enhancing Visibility, Impact, and Value of the Research 
How to optimize your efforts in developing DMPs?
Advantages of using an online DMP writing tool 
Dealing with funder and subject-specific templates 
