ARDC is enabled by NCRIS Challenging the narrative: DMPs as best practice - fact or fiction? 10 December 2025 Kathryn Unsworth, Manager, Skilled Workforce Development, ARDC
Acknowledgement of Country We acknowledge and celebrate the First Australians on whose traditional lands we meet, and we pay our respect to their elders past and present.
About the ARDC The ARDC is Australia’s leading research data infrastructure facility. Our Purpose To provide Australian researchers with competitive advantage through data. Our Mission To accelerate research and innovation by driving excellence in the creation, analysis and retention of high-quality data assets.
poll-type-id What role do you think DMPs play in achieving better research outcomes? Are they working as intended? Presenting with animations, GIFs or speaker notes? Enable our Chrome extension logo-id
Discussion points ●What is a Data Management Plan (DMP)? ●Origins and evolution of DMPs ●Why mandate DMPs? ●Best practice - show me the evidence! ●Challenges & criticisms ●How the ARDC supports DMPs ●The way forward Image credit: ARDC Skills Summit 2024
What is a Data Management Plan (DMP)? A DMP is a formal ‘document’ that outlines how research data will be handled throughout a research project’s lifecycle. DMPs are often required by funding agencies and institutions to ensure compliance with policies, promote transparency and support data sharing and reuse. Image credit: Adapted from Memorial University’s Research Data Lifecycle -https://www.mun.ca/research/resources/lifecycle/
Origins and evolution of DMPs ●1960s: DMPs originated as bespoke, project-specific tools for large, complex engineering and aeronautical projects, focusing on data collection, analysis and storage. ●1970s–1980s: Use expanded across scientific disciplines due to anecdotal efficiency gains. ●Early 2000s: Funding agencies and institutions (especially in the UK and US) began mandating DMPs in response to digital research, funding efficiency and growing expectations for data sharing. ●2010s onward: DMP requirements became widespread, applied to projects of all sizes and complexities. Image credit: Image by heimseiten_WebdesignKoeln from Pixabay
Why mandate DMPs? Advocates claim DMPs have three major benefits: ●Professional (for researchers): improved productivity, data quality and transparency. ●Economic (for funders/society): greater return on research investment via data sharing and reuse. ●Institutional (for organisations): easier planning, compliance and research integrity management. History tells us how well other mandates have been received. Image credit: Image by Sean Corcoran from Pixabay - mask mandate
Best practice - show me the evidence! ●Little to no systematic evidence that completing DMPs delivers promised benefits for researchers, institutions or funders. ●Mandatory DMPs often create significant administrative burden; many are perfunctory and disconnected from real research practice. ●Analysis of 800+ DMPs at a major Australian institution found most were poor quality and provided minimal useful information for managing or locating data. Image credit: Image by Tumisu from Pixabay
Example #3 - RO-Crate Applications of RO-Crate An RO-Crate is a structured package for sharing research data. It can: ●Contain files and link to large datasets stored online ●Record an entire analysis, including inputs, outputs, and tools used ●Connect related publications and datasets ●Preserve datasets for long-term archiving ●Combine multiple uses to fit different needs RO-Crate is used in fields like bioinformatics, digital humanities, and regulatory sciences. Different communities can also adapt and extend it to their specific data and requirements. Image credit: Goble, C. (2024, February 16). FAIR Digital Research Objects: Metadata Journeys. University of Auckland Seminar, Auckland. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10710142
I will now step down from my soapbox. Please challenge any of my assumptions, and also let me know of any examples when DMPs truly worked.
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