The NIH Data Management and Sharing (DMS) Policy requires that all NIH researchers submit a Data Management and Sharing (DMS) Plan in their grant applications.
What do you need to know about the new NIH DMS policy?
- The new policy applies to any researcher funded in whole or in part by NIH whose research generates scientific data.
- The policy requires investigators to submit an official Data Management and Sharing Plan as part of their request for funding. Researchers are expected to maximize their data sharing.
- NIH strongly encourages the use of established repositories to the extent possible for preserving and sharing scientific data.
- Investigators may request funding for personnel costs or other fees related to data management and sharing activities; however, the money must be spent during the grant’s award period.
- Grant reviewers will see the data management plan and can comment on the budget, but plans are not used to determine the grant’s scientific merit.
- Researchers will need to think ahead when planning research projects to take data sharing into consideration. For example, those planning clinical studies will need to clearly communicate with prospective subjects via informed consent documentation about how their scientific data are expected to be used and shared.
- The approved plan becomes a part of the terms and conditions of the grant. Compliance will be monitored at regular reporting intervals and may factor into future funding decisions.
NIH. Writing a Data Managment & Sharing Plan
FAQs
WHAT COUNTS AS RESEARCH DATA??
Most federal funding agencies define research data as:
"the recorded factual material commonly accepted in the scientific community as necessary to validate research findings."
Data can be text, numbers, images, video, sound, almost anything observed and recorded during the research process, that forms the basis of your analysis.
NOT RESEARCH DATA:
- Lab notebooks
- drafts of manuscripts
- communicatinos
- Specimens
- Software or code
- Preliminary analyses
