Data Management

The DMS policy applies to all research that generates scientific data, including:

• Research projects
• Some career development awards
• Small business SBIR/STTR
• Researcher Centers

The DMS policy does not apply to research and other activities that do not generate scientific data, including:

• Training (T)
• Fellowships (F)
• Construction (C06)
• Conference Grants (R13)
• Resource (G)
• Research-Related Infrastructure Programs (e.g. S06)

Researchers may be subject to additional sharing policies. Use the NIH decision tool to determine which policies apply to your research.

The University offers an Open Researcher and Contributor ID (ORCID) as a persistent identifier that connects you to all of your work and professional activities. We are currently one of thousands of ORCID member organizations. Register for an ORCID today.

Not sure if you already have an ORCID? Reach out to River Campus Libraries, or contact Miner Library by emailing Miner_Information@urmc.rochester.edu.

The NIH has a template for data management and sharing (DMS) plans. DMS plans should contain the following elements:

• Data type
• Related tools, software, and code
• Standards for data and metadata
• Data preservation, access, and associated timelines
• Access, distribution, or reuse considerations
• Oversight of data management and sharing

You can use the DMPTool to create your own DMS plan. You can also email the Data Management Librarians for assistance in assembling your DMS plan: Heather Owen (River Campus Libraries) or Ehsan Moghadam (Edward G. Miner Library).

Review the NIH’s guidance on writing a DMS plan and peruse examples of DMS plans for additional clarification.

The policy allows researchers to budget for data management and sharing activities. Reasonable costs may be included in NIH budget requests for:

• Curating data, such as
  • Engaging a generalist repository for curation support services
• Developing supporting documentation, such as
  • Research personnel effort needed to create and retain appropriate documentation beyond the effort needed to simply generate or collect the data
• Formatting data according to accepted community standards, or for transmission to and storage at a selected repository for long-term preservation and access, such as
  • Support services that may be offered by the repository
  • Engaging a service center for support with data deposits
• De-identifying data, such as
  • Utilization of the University’s Data De-Identification Service to systematically remove all identifiers from a data set prior to sharing
  • Engaging a third-party vendor to certify that a data set has been fully deidentified
• Preparing metadata to foster discoverability, interpretation, and reuse, such as
  • Research personnel effort needed to document appropriate metadata beyond the effort needed to simply generate or collect the data
• Unique, project-specific information resources necessary to provide local management and preservation, such as
  • Charges from an external vendor for cloud storage prior to deposit into an established repository
  • Costs to use LabArchives, the University’s electronic lab notebook
• Preserving and sharing data through established repositories, such as
  • Charges for the use of the University of Rochester Research Repository (URRR)
  • Other data deposit fees

Note: All allowable costs submitted in budget requests must be incurred during the performance period.

Note: The following costs are unallowable and should not be included in the budget request:

• Infrastructure costs (these are included in indirect or F&A costs)
• Costs associated with the routine conduct of research, including costs associated with collecting or gaining access to research data
• Costs that are double charged or inconsistently charged as both direct and indirect costs

View additional information on allowable and unallowable costs for data management from the NIH.

As part of the NIH Data Management and Sharing Policy, researchers are required to preserve and share scientific data and accompanying metadata.

Scientific data, per the NIH, is considered the recorded factual material commonly accepted in the scientific community as of sufficient quality to validate and replicate research findings, regardless of whether the data are used to support scholarly publications.

NIH policy specifies that scientific data must be made available no later than the time of an associated publication or end of performance period, whichever comes first.

The University recommends planning to preserve your scientific data in a repository for the length of the grant + 5 years.

The Data Management and Sharing Policy is very clear on how to select a data repository to store your scientific data:

• The funding opportunity announcement (FOA) will either indicate a repository

OR

• If the FOA doesn’t specify a repository, researchers should use discipline or data-type specific repository

OR

• If FOA doesn’t specify a repository AND there is no domain or data-type specific repository:
  • Small datasets (up to 2GB) may be included as supplementary material for articles submitted to PubMed Central

OR

• Researchers must use a generalist / institutional repository that makes data available to larger research community / broader public. The University of Rochester’s institutional repository is available to all researchers.

Our decision tree can help you determine what type of repository to use.

The NIH encourages researchers to select the repository that is most appropriate for their data type and discipline. See NIH-supported Scientific Data Repositories for a listing of repositories.

Reference our data repository decision tree

No. Although the DMS Policy applies to most NIH grants, it does not apply to awards for Training Programs (e.g. Ts, D43) and Fellowship Programs (Fs).

See the NIH’s comprehensive listing of all NIH activity codes that generally require applicants to submit a Data Management and Sharing Plan.

No – the NIH expects only one DMS Plan to be submitted with each application and does not expect separate plans to be developed for individual projects under that application. In multi-component applications, the DMS Plan must be included in the Overall component. Applicants are encouraged to determine whether and how to coordinate responsibilities with respect to Plans with all Program Directors/Principal Investigators and all Key Personnel on the same application.

No, Box does not meet the requirements of the NIH Data Management and Sharing Policy. Box may be used to store data, but is not sufficient to share data.

• Is there a deposit fee for any of the repositories you are planning to use?
  • Does the repository allow pre-payment via a single deposit fee or is there an annual recurring fee?
    • Note: If an annual fee, fees incurred after the period of performance cannot be charged to the award.
• Will you need dedicated research personnel time to support any data management and sharing activities to meet repository requirements? If not personnel time, will you need to engage the services of a core/service center or vendor to complete:
  • Data curation?
  • Developing supporting documentation?
  • Formatting data according to accepted community standards or for transmission and storage at selected repository?
  • Preparing metadata?
  • De-identifying data?
• Where are you planning to store the data while the project is active? Is there an associated fee?
• Is there a fee associated with any tools or software you are planning to use to collect or analyze the data?
  • Note: If these are necessary for the ordinary conduct of research and not just the data management and sharing activities, they should be budgeted in the appropriate budget category and not in the data management and sharing line item.
• Do you have subrecipients?
  • If yes, will they be responsible and need to budget for data management and sharing activities?
• Are you a subrecipient?
  • If yes, have you discussed with the Prime PI if you will be responsible and need to budget for data management and sharing activities?
• Do you anticipate any expenses related to the Data Management and Sharing Plan after the end of the period of performance of the award? If so, how should those costs be covered as they cannot be charged to the award?