What's New?
Starting January 25, 2023 NIH will require all researchers seeking grant funds that result in the generation of scientific data to:
- Submit a 2-page Data Management and Sharing plan outlining how their scientific data and accompanying documentation will be managed and shared
- As part of that plan, maximize the appropriate sharing of scientific data generated from NIH-funded or conducted research, with justified limitations or exceptions.
Data Management and Sharing (DMS) Plan Template Language
These data management plan templates are based on the NIH format and have sample language to get you started.
More Resources
- NIH DMS Policy Homepage
- NIH Institutes and Centers Data Sharing Policies
- De-identified data sharing guidance from UCSF
- UCSF Library guide to data management
How to get help
Questions about the new policy or need help selecting an appropriate data repository or metadata standard? Want someone to present on the policy to your team or department? Contact the UCSF Library's data management team.
For more in-depth assistance writing your data management plan or consulting on de-identification please visit UCSF CTSI Consultation Services
FAQs about the new DMS Policy
A group of UCSF faculty and administrative stakeholders is working to align our current data management and sharing procedures and guidance to ensure consistency in practices and compliance with the final NIH policy. For questions or suggestions email Data Services Librarian Ariel Deardorff at ariel.deardorff@ucsf.edu
The final NIH Policy defines Scientific Data as: “The recorded factual material commonly accepted in the scientific community as of sufficient quality to validate and replicate research findings"
Researchers are not expected to share: data that are not necessary for or of sufficient quality to validate and replicate the research findings, laboratory notebooks, preliminary analyses, completed case report forms, drafts of scientific papers, plans for future research, peer reviews, communications with colleagues, or physical objects, such as laboratory specimens.
In these max two-page documents, researchers will describe their:
- Data type
- Related tools, software, and/or code
- Standards
- Data preservation, access, and associated timelines
- Access, distribution, or reuse considerations
- Oversight of data management and sharing
Read more about Data Management Plans and see sample language
No. NIH prefers that scientific data be shared and preserved through repositories rather than kept by a researcher and provided upon request.
NIH program staff will assess the DMS plans but peer reviewers may comment on the proposed budget for data management and sharing.
NIH encourages the use of established repositories. To select a repository relevant to your data consider:
- Is there a specific NIH repository named in the funding announcement?
- Is there a data repository specific to your discipline?
- If not, is there a general data repository you can use?
- For UCSF researchers, consider Dryad data repository - free for UCSF
To learn more, check out the UCSF Library guide to data repositories or read the NIH guidance on selecting a data repository
A standard specifies how exactly data and related materials should be stored, organized, and described. In the context of research data, the term typically refers to the use of specific and well-defined formats, schemas, vocabularies, and ontologies in the description and organization of data. However, for researchers within a community where more formal standards have not been well established, it can also be interpreted more broadly to refer to the adoption of the same (or similar) data management-related activities, conventions, or strategies by different researchers and across different projects.
Learn more about standards on this guide from the UCSF Library.
NIH encourages scientific data be shared as soon as possible, and no later than time of an associated publication or end of the performance period, whichever comes first.
Allowable costs can include:
- data curation and developing documentation (formatting data, de-identifying data, preparing metadata, curating data for a data repository)
- data management considerations (unique and specialized information infrastructure necessary to provide local management and preservation before depositing in a repository)
- preserving data in data repositories (data deposit fees)
Visit this page on de-identification to learn about UCSF offices that can offer de-identification advice and see additional resources.
NIH Program Staff will be monitoring compliance with the policy during the funding period. “Noncompliance with Plans may result in the NIH ICO adding special Terms and Conditions of Award or terminating the award. If award recipients are not compliant with Plans at the end of the award, noncompliance may be factored into future funding decisions.”
UCSF researchers should follow the guidance for sharing de-identified data to incorporate data sharing into their research process.
NIH strongly encourages researchers who work with sensitive topics and/or populations to address data sharing in the Informed Consent process. UCSF consent form templates include appropriate sample language.
Researchers should pay special attention to their de-identification process to ensure that all identifying information has been fully removed. CTSI’s data de-identification service can provide advice on de-identification and connect you with third party de-identification validation services.
Finally, researchers should consider depositing their data in restricted access repositories that require data use agreements and research plans in order to access the data.
While sharing data can lead to scooping, this is very rare. If you are worried about scooping you may want to hold off publishing your data until your associated publication is ready to be published. Some repositories also have a "private for peer review" option which allows you to make your data available to peer reviewers but not fully publish your data until the article has been accepted.