The end of April will mark four months—and ten application due dates—since the NIH’s Data Management and Sharing Policy (2023) went into effect. Judging by the application drafts that HSLS librarians have read, Pitt health sciences researchers are rising to the challenge and writing data management and sharing plans that demonstrate careful thought about how their research data will be organized, shared, and preserved.
If you are writing a data management and sharing plan under the new policy for the first time, here are some tips and recent developments that may help:
- You can use a template to create your data management and sharing plan at DMPTool by signing in with your pitt.edu email address and choosing NIH as your funder. The template provides guidance from NIH notices, the experts at DMPTool, and your own Pitt health sciences librarians. When you are done, use the “Request feedback” tab, and we will review your draft and offer comments.
- The Pitt Office of Sponsored Programs and Office of Research Protections have issued language about the oversight of data management and sharing that researchers can use in Element 6 of their plans. See the official announcement from OSP for the language and links to more resources: “Data Management and Sharing Policy: Additional New Resources Available”
- The NIH has put together a new Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page that provides clarification on some topics not explicitly addressed in the official policy or associated notices. This contains the latest information from the NIH; for example, questions on budgeting for data management and sharing were added in February 2023.
- The HSLS guide to the NIH Data Management and Sharing Policy has been updated to reflect these recent changes, and we will keep it current as new information is released. The guide walks researchers through the policy’s requirements, provides instructions for creating a data management and sharing plan, and offers resources for complying with the approved plan.
If you want more information about the policy but aren’t yet ready to share a draft plan for feedback through DMPTool, you can request a consultation with HSLS data librarians. We can also bring this information to your faculty or lab meeting and provide resources specific to a particular research domain.
~Helenmary Sheridan