Data management plan

From Science Europe Data Glossary

Definition: a (research) data management plan (DMP) is a formal document that outlines how to handle data both during research, and after the research is completed.
Explanation: The goal of a data management plan is to consider the many aspects of research data management, metadata generation, data preservation, and data analysis before the project begins; this ensures that data are well-managed in the present, and prepared for preservation in the future.
A data management plan grows out of an understanding of how data should be collected, normalized, processed, analyzed, preserved, used and re-used over their lifetime. Data management plans are often required by grant funding agencies. A data management plan that is associated with a research study must include comprehensive information about the data such as the data types, the metadata standards used, the policies for access and data sharing, and the plans for data archiving and preserving so that it is accessible over time. Data management plans ensure that data will be properly documented and available for use by other researchers in the future.
References: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_management_plan; http://esciencelibrary.umassmed.edu/thesaurus/data-management-plan
See also: research data management