Martin DonnellyDigital Curation CentreUniversity of Edinburgh

Tools update:

DMP Online

iConference 2013, pre-conference workshopFort Worth, TX, 12 February 2013

RUNNING ORDER (45 mins)

1. Introduction and background2. DMP Online: overview and recent

developments (up to v3.0)3. Walkthrough4. Partnerships and collaborations5. DMP Online: future plans (v3.5 and v4.0)6. Links and credits

1. Introduction/Background

- In 2009, we compiled a list of UK funders’ data requirements, gathered these into thematic groups, and supplemented with a few extras from our own experience

- This became the ‘Checklist for a Data Management Plan v1.0’. Aimed primarily at researchers, it had 51 questions/headings.

- After consultation, v2.0 had 115. We’re now (v3.0) up to around 120.

History

- 120 questions is too many, even if you tell people to ignore the irrelevant ones, so we created the DMP Online tool.

- Originally this was just intended to guide UK researchers through their chosen funder’s requirements, helping them to produce a DMP that satisfied these via some carefully-chosen guidance.

- But we became aware that the audience was, in fact, broader than this…

Problems with the Checklist approach

- Just the principal investigator? (ultimately responsible)

- What about the research assistants?- And the institution’s funding office?- And the Library/IT?- What about partners based in other

institutions?- And commercial partners?

Who’s involved in the DMP process?

ResearcherResearch

Support Office Data Library / Repository

Computing Support

Faculty Ethics Committee Etc...

DATAMANAGEMENT…PLAN?

UNRULYDATA

2. DMP Online: overview

DMP Online is a web-based tool that enables users to…-Create, store and update multiple versions of DMPs at the application and in-project stages-Meet funders’specific data-related requirements-Get funder/institution-specific guidance on best practice and helpful contacts-Customise and export DMPs in a variety of formats

What it does

In May 2012 we launched v3.0, which has some powerful new features…

- Ability to share plans, and jointly edit them- Overlaying multiple templates (e.g. institution AND

funder1 AND funder2 AND publisher, etc)- Institutional sign-in via Shibboleth authentication,

which in turn allows customised institutional versions with their own look and feel (and URL)

- Multilingual support

...…we also went Open Source at this point.

New functionality (v3.0)

Uptake

At early Jan 2013 we had 1411 confirmed users and 1524 plans created

3. DMP Online: walkthrough

- User logs in and starts a new DMP by filling in some basic details. She then chooses the template(s) she needs.

- Each template contains a subset of the checklist questions, which have been mapped to the requirements of the funder, institution, discipline, publishers, etc. Templates also contain detailed guidance and links to further information to help the user on her way.

- The DMP owner can share access with collaborators or with support staff. They can therefore work together on different sections of the plan.

- Plans can be exported at any stage, and in a variety of different formats; once complete, they can be submitted alongside the funding application.

How it works

Screenshot #1: Login

Screenshot #2: create a plan

Screenshot #3: plan homescreen

Screenshot #4: guidance

Screenshot #5: tailored templates

Screenshot #6: sharing

Screenshot #7: export process

Screenshot #8: export result

4. Collaborations

Working with funders

There are three ways that institutions can et involved with DMP Online:-Develop an institutional template on the central service-Produce a customised version, still hosted by DCC-Host their own custom install

For more detail, see my blog post at http://www.dcc.ac.uk/blog/tailoring-dmp-online-for-your-institution

Institutional templates/customisations

Working with institutions and disciplinary communities

- DCC was a founder member of the US DMPTool consortium, and we continue to work together. Joint workshops at IDCC in Amsterdam (Jan 2013) and iSchools Conference in Texas (now!)

- Working with ANDS in Australia to deploy DMP Online on the NECTAR academic cloud.

- European Commission has encouraged DCC to propose a pilot DMP tool for Horizon 2020. Expecting a DMP requirement in the next funding programme.

International collaborations

5. DMP Online: future

PRO-Users prefer using an online tool to paper templates-They like the sharing functionality-Considerable demand for institutional customisations

CON-Users generally find the current screen layout and user interface too complex-Some also complained about the mapping process, and say they would prefer to answer funder questions verbatim (as is the case with DMP Tool)

Evaluation exercise

- We’ll be simplifying and improving the user interface ASAP- We’re looking to produce a new version of the Checklist,

with fewer questions. This *might* be more along the lines of a taxonomy of data management, and we’re looking into linking up with work that CASRAI are doing (which we influenced via the original Checklist!)

- We’ll freshen up the associated guidance - Users will be able to select new templates that don’t map to

the Checklist at all, or relate to it in a different way- New system will retain compatibility with existing content

See DCC Director Kevin Ashley’s blog post at http://www.dcc.ac.uk/news/future-plans-dmponline

Future plans (short and longer term)

6. Links and credits

Thank you

martin.donnelly@ed.ac.uk@mkdDCC

www.dcc.ac.uk

All of our DMP resources are available via www.dcc.ac.uk/dmponline

Thanks to DCC colleagues for use of their slides:Sarah Jones and Kerry Miller