Learn how to use a new tool to ease the process of applying for grants from national agencies.
"Using DMPTool: Preparing Data Management Plan for Grant Applications," will be Tuesday, Oct. 9, in the Woodruff Library Room 312 from 11:30 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. The class will be taught by Jennifer Doty, data management specialist in the Electronic Data Center of the Woodruff Libraries, and Katherine Akers, Council on Library and Information Resources postdoctoral fellow and e-Science librarian.
The class will walk users through the DMPTool, an Emory-authorized tool to help researchers who are composing grant applications that require data management plans.
The class is for researchers from any field, including physical and natural sciences, social sciences, health sciences and humanities.
Many funding agencies, including the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health and the National Endowment for the Humanities, require a data management plan for grant applications, requiring researchers to detail how their data will be preserved and shared.
"The tool is quite user-friendly," Doty says. "It simplifies the process by breaking down the sections of a plan into easy manageable parts, and includes important questions to consider about how your project data is managed throughout the research lifecycle -- how the data is collected, analyzed, stored, preserved."
She also says security and confidentiality have been addressed. "Each plan is expected to consider who will have access to the data while the project is ongoing, and whether it can be shared after results are published."
Doty thinks some researchers at Emory may have heard of and utilized the tool since it became available in July 2011.
"What is new for Emory researchers is the ability to use single sign-on authentication via the Emory network ID to login and save their plans, and having institutional support and customization of the tool for all Emory users," she explains.
The tool lets researchers save their plans while they are drafting them; share plans get input and feedback from collaborators; and export them to include in the full grant application package, she notes.
Doty says the DMPTool is expected to add more plan templates for other agencies as these adopt their own data management policies.
There is no limit to the Oct. 9 class size. "However, if demand does exceed the classroom space, we may schedule another time for the fall semester," says Doty, adding "we also plan to offer it again in the spring."