Data Management and Sharing

As of January 25, 2023, all research proposals submitted to NIH must include a Data Management and Sharing Plan. This page provides tools to help you understand the NIH DMS policy and create your plan.

Tools for Creating a DMS Plan

To help investigators get started, NIH has generated a suite of resources.

The NIH provides an overview of the policy, allowing investigators to determine whether their research is subject to the policy, and providing guidance for budgeting requests, including a list of allowable costs that may be included in grant budgets.

When it comes to writing a Data Management and Sharing Plan, NIH offers an optional format guide outlining the six required elements. For a more guided process, investigators may wish to use a tool such as DMPTool which will walk through the creation of a plan step by step.

While developing a DMS Plan, investigators should consider strategies for data management, and identify any data repositories that are relevant to the data they will collect.

Still have questions? Check out the NIH Frequently Asked Questions page to learn more.

For Authors Publishing in APS Journals

Authors who publish in APS journals are encouraged to make data that underlie reported conclusions freely available through deposition in public repositories. In addition, supplemental data must be deposited in a publicly accessible data repository.

Additional information about APS journal policies is available in the Information for Authors.

Additional Resources

The Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) has developed a new initiative entitled DataWorks! to bring investigators together to advance research through data sharing and reuse. DataWorks! Salons provide a forum for researchers to exchange ideas and share best practices for DMS, and the DataWorks! Help Desk (coming soon!) will provide guidance for researchers navigating data sharing policies.