DMP Tool

DMPTool is a free, web-based platform designed to help researchers, institutions and funders create, store and manage data-management and sharing plans (DMSPs). Developed and hosted by the California Digital Library, part of the University of California system, the tool supports compliance with funder requirements while promoting best practices in research-data stewardship. 

Who it serves & how

• Researchers benefit by using DMPTool’s wizard-style interface to build a structured plan suitable for grant applications, research data-policies and long-term data archiving. 
• Institutions (libraries, data-services units) integrate DMPTool to support their researchers, provide templates aligned with university policies and monitor institutional compliance and metadata. 
• Funders and research-governance bodies gain from machine-actionable plans, improved metadata, and a clearer picture of how data will be managed, shared or preserved. 

Key features & value-proposition

• The platform offers funder-specific templates and guidance (e.g., major agencies) so that DMPs are aligned with current requirements. 
• It facilitates collaboration and revision of plans: researchers can create, store and export plans (PDF/Word) or collaborate with colleagues/institutions. 
• Supports the emerging standard of machine-actionable DMPs (maDMPs), enabling richer metadata, API access and integration with research data-infrastructures. 

Considerations

• While the tool simplifies the creation of DMPs, the quality of the plan still relies on the researcher’s input (clear description of data types, metadata, sharing strategies, archiving).
• Some advanced institutional features (analytics, tracking across projects) may require setting up membership/integration with the institution’s data services.
• Although free to use for individuals, institutional adoption might involve coordination (policy alignment, training) to maximise impact.