2012 University of California Larry L. Sautter Award Application
Due: The deadline for submission of applications is May 15, 2012, by 5:00 p.m.
DMPTool
Guidance and Resources for Data Management Plans
Submitted by:
Perry Willett, Digital Preservation Service Manager
California Digital Library (CDL)
University of California Office of the President
415 20th St., 4th Floor
Oakland CA 94612-2901
email: perry.willett@ucop.edu
ph: 510-987-0078
Participating Organizations
 University of California Curation Center (UC3), CDL
 UCLA Library
 UC San Diego Libraries
 Smithsonian Institution
 DataONE Consortium
 University of Illinois
 University of Virginia Library
Full list of participants is on page 4.
Project Highlights
The DMPTool <https://dmp.cdlib.org> provides an easy way for UC researchers to create and edit data
management plans now required by most major federal funding programs. The DMPTool provides stepby-step guidance for researchers, helping them to respond to all aspects of data management expected
by funding agencies, and also pointing them to resources available within UC and CDL for archiving and
sharing research data.
Project Description
In January 2011, the (U.S.) National Science Foundation (NSF) published requirements stating that new
grant proposals to the NSF must include data management plans describing plans for data acquisition,
description, archiving and sharing. Other U.S. agencies, including the National Endowment for the
Humanities (NEH), the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), have followed NSF’s lead by also requiring that new grant
proposals include a data management plan. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) requires that
Principal Investigators for grants with awards of more than $500,000 describe plans for data sharing.
UC researchers received almost $500 million in grant funding from the NSF in 2010, and millions of
dollars more from these other agencies. In order to remain competitive for future grants, they need to
provide good data management plans in their grant proposals. They may not be aware of the services
and resources available to them for data management—digital repositories, websites describing best
practices, consultation services, workshops, partnering opportunities. Connecting researchers with
these services and resources will result in better data management, better projects and ultimately
better research. This helps fulfill the university’s goal of “transmitting advanced knowledge, discovering
new knowledge, and functioning as an active working repository of organized knowledge.”1
In the fall of 2010, the UC Curation Center (UC3) at the California Digital Library partnered with the UCLA
Library, UC San Diego Libraries and several other organizations to develop a tool to aid researchers with
these new requirements.2 From the beginning, we had two goals for the DMPTool:

To provide researchers with step-by-step guidance for writing data management plans that
respond to the precise instructions of funding agencies;

To highlight resources and services available to scholars to meet data management
requirements
We quickly organized into working groups to develop requirements and build the software.
The process was highly collaborative and resulted in the DMPTool. The software, built with Ruby on
Rails, is available as free and open source3. The real benefit of the service, however, is the analysis and
expertise recorded in the database. The team identifies funding agencies with data management
requirements for their grants, determines the questions these agencies want researchers to address,
and models the questions within the DMPTool. This analysis benefits everyone using the DMPTool,
making a centrally-hosted service more attractive. CDL hosts the service, leveraging the technical
infrastructure and expertise available in-house.
Innovation
Our initial idea was to implement software developed by one of our partners, the Digital Curation
Centre (DCC) in the UK. Their tool, aimed at UK researchers, is called DMP Online4 and provides the
same kind of step-by-step instruction that we wanted to give our researchers. However, after careful
consideration, we determined that while we could (and did) learn from the DCC’s experience, we
wanted to develop a tool more closely aligned with both of our goals to provide step-by-step guidance
and highlight local resources and services.
The framework we developed is flexible enough to meet the requirements of the several federal funding
agencies along with one private foundation, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. Even though
these various funders have differing requirements, we can accurately represent all of them within the
DMPTool.
Usability/accessibility
Although it is a simple application, we worked hard to be sure that the DMPTool is usable, accessible,
and useful for researchers. In order to achieve this, we made user testing a high priority:

1
We conducted structured usability tests at the University of Virginia usability lab and at
California Polytechnical State University at San Luis Obisbo.
University of California Mission Statement,
http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/aboutuc/missionstatement.html
2
Partner institutions include: California Digital Library, UCLA Library, UC San Diego Libraries, DataONE consortium,
Digital Curation Centre (UK), Smithsonian Institution, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and University of
Virginia Library.
3
Available at https://bitbucket.org/dmptool/main/wiki/Home
4
Available at http://dmponline.dcc.ac.uk/

We worked with an accessibility specialist at the University of Illinois to determine how to
improve accessibility for sight-impaired users.

We worked with researchers from the DataONE consortium, testing several iterations of
interface designs and workflows.
The results are a highly user-friendly and accessible service open to everyone that meets significant
needs of researchers. As a web-based resource, the enduser requires no special software.
Options for customization
With a goal of connecting researchers with local resources and services for data management, we make
it easy for librarians, archivists and IT staff to customize the DMPTool. One simple step that
organizations can take is to configure their campus Shibboleth identity provider. The DMPTool uses
LDAP for basic authentication, requiring researchers to create and manage a user account within the
tool. Once an institution configures its Shibboleth identity provider, researchers can log in via their
campus single-signon, freeing them of the need to manage yet another user account within the
DMPTool. 50 institutions have taken this step, accounting for approximately half of all users.
More significant is the opportunity for institutions to include links to services and resources they provide
for data management. Institutions can include an email address to be contacted when one of their
researchers have a question; they can provide links to webpages that will appear in all data
management plans or aimed at specific questions asked by funders. For example, they can highlight
their digital repository in questions about long-term storage. Institutions can also create blogposts to
highlight events, workshops or new services related to data management, and these posts will appear to
their users within the DMPTool. The CDL has customized the DMPTool for most UC campuses, pointing
to the many services and resources we provide for data management. UC San Diego has also customized
the DMPTool to point to the Research Cyberinfrastructure available to UCSD researchers. 16 other
institutions have taken this step by adding links to local resources and services.
Collaboration
This project required close collaboration, given our expectations and short deadline. All aspects of the
project, from writing requirements to designing the interface to developing the software, were selffunded and required constant communication and careful management to keep moving forward.
Librarians at CDL, UCLA and UCSD served on the steering committee with colleagues at the other
member institutions, and held regular meetings to keep the project on track. Developers at CDL worked
closely with colleagues at UCLA and University of Illinois, dividing up the work and helping each other
integrate their work as they added functionality or addressed problems. While it’s common to
collaborate with partners on planning, requirements, and testing, it was the first time many of us had
participated in a distributed software development project like this, and the results were extremely
gratifying. See the full list of project team members on page 4.
Measuring success
The DMPTool was released in October 2011, and has received a great deal of attention. As described
above, we have provided ways for institutions to partner with us and customize the DMPTool for their
researchers. Without much in the way of a marketing campaign, we have received a steady stream of
expressions of interest from institutions. 50 institutions have configured their Shibboleth identity
providers for the DMPTool, including 7 UC campuses and UCOP, and more are added every month. 18
institutions have customized the DMPTool for their researchers.
The best measure of success is in the use of the DMPTool. As of the end of April 2012, we have over
1600 users who have created over 1200 data management plans. Uptake among UC researchers has
been notable. There are almost 400 users from UC campuses and they’ve created over 300 data
management plans. These users represent hundreds of research projects applying for grant support, and
the DMPTool helps make their proposals more competitive.
Project team members
University of California Curation Center (UC3), CDL
 Patricia Cruse, Director, UC3
 Stephen Abrams, Senior Manager for Digital Preservation Technology
 Scott Fisher, Software Developer
 Margaret Low, Systems Administrator
 Mark Reyes, Software Developer
 Marisa Strong, Lead DMPTool Software Developer
 Tracy Seneca , Information Architect
 Perry Willett, DMPTool Project Manager
UCLA Library
 Darrow Cole, Programmer Analyst
 Todd Grappone, Associate University Librarian
 Gary Thompson, Programmer Analyst
UCSD Libraries
 Brad Westbrook, Digital Archivist and Metadata Librarian
DataONE Consortium
 Amber Budden, Director for Community Engagement and Outreach
Smithsonian Institution
 Günter Waibel, Director, Digitization Program Office
University of Illinois
 Michael Grady, Executive Program Officer for Cyberinfrastructure
 Howard Ding, Programmer Analyst
 Sarah Shreeves, Coordinator, Illinois Digital Environment for Access to Learning and Scholarship
(IDEALS)
University of Virginia Library
 Andrew Sallans, Head of Strategic Data Initiatives
 Sherry Lake, Senior Scientific Data Consultant
 Carla Lee, Director Science Engineering and Education Services
Digital Curation Centre (UK)
 Martin Donnelly, Senior Institutional Support Officer