Pre-conference workshop, iConference 2013, Fort Worth, TX

1. Tools update:
DMP Online
Martin Donnelly
Digital Curation Centre
University of Edinburgh
iConference 2013, pre-conference workshop
Fort Worth, TX, 12 February 2013

2. RUNNING ORDER (45 mins)
1. Introduction and background
2. DMP Online: overview and recent
developments (up to v3.0)
3. Walkthrough
4. Partnerships and collaborations
5. DMP Online: future plans (v3.5 and v4.0)
6. Links and credits

3. 1. Introduction/Background

4. History
- 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.

5. Problems with the Checklist approach
- 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…

6. Who’s involved in the DMP process?
- 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?

7. Research
Support Office Data Library / Repository
Researcher
DATA
MANAGEMENT
…PLAN?
UNRULY
DATA
Computing Faculty Ethics
Support Etc...
Committee

8. 2. DMP Online: overview

9. What it does
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

10. New functionality (v3.0)
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.

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

12. 3. DMP Online: walkthrough

13. How it works
- 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.

14. Screenshot #1: Login

15. Screenshot #2: create a plan

16. Screenshot #3: plan homescreen

17. Screenshot #4: guidance

18. Screenshot #5: tailored templates

19. Screenshot #6: sharing

20. Screenshot #7: export process

21. Screenshot #8: export result

22. 4. Collaborations

23. Working with funders

24. Institutional templates/customisations
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

25. Working with institutions and
disciplinary communities

26. International collaborations
- 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.

27. 5. DMP Online: future

28. Evaluation exercise
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)

29. Future plans (short and longer term)
- 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

30. 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