Data Life Cycle

What is a DMP?

A DMP describes all aspects of managing research data throughout the data’s lifecycle. The document is created at the beginning of a research project.

Research data lifecycle (Graph: ETH Library)

Why a DMP?

• Reduce the risk of data loss
• Clear responsibilities for individual stages and a higher probability of valid data
• Traceability and reproducibility are guaranteed
• Compliance with good scientific practice
• Reduction of the effort required for future reuse of data, either in-house or by others
• Compliance with funding guidelines, e.g., SNF Open Research Data und EU.

How do I create a DMP?

There are different ways to create a DMP. Swissuniversities provides a helpful website for this purpose.

Swissuniversities: DLCM 2.0 Projekt
DLCM Checklist DMP (PDF)
DLCM template for the SNSF Data Management Plan (PDF)
Swiss National Science Foundation: Data Management Plan - Guidelines for researchers
Tool for creating a DMP