This article provides a comprehensive, step-by-step guide to Element 2 of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Data Management and Sharing (DMS) Policy: Tools, Software, and Code.
Suggestions: Review the Overview of 2023 NIH Data Management and Sharing Policy for information on all areas and requirements for submitting an NIH DMS Plan with your grant application.
For example plans, see List of Sample Data Management and Sharing Plans.
Element 2: Tools, Software, and Code – Content
Requirement Examples Fill-in-the-Blank Template Additional Resources
Element 2: Requirement
State whether specialized tools, software, and/or code are needed to access or manipulate shared scientific data, and if so, provide the name(s) of the needed tool(s) and software and specify how they can be accessed.
Tool(s) and software should be identified, and then DMS Plans should specify how the tools can be accessed (e.g., open-source and freely available, generally available for a fee in the marketplace, available only from the research team). When known, the longevity, or period of time for which custom or proprietary tools will be available, should be addressed. File formats in which data are saved in a digital format can be divided into two general categories:
- Proprietary: The specification of the data encoding format that is not released or is restricted in some way. Proprietary formats can only be easily opened and manipulated by particular software tools.
- Open: The specification of the data encoding format that can be used and implemented by anyone. Open formats can be easily opened and manipulated by a large number of software tools.
Element 2: Examples
Sample Plan Text
Animal studies with computational modeling: The raw data generated via the confocal microscope is in the Carl Zeiss (.CZI) file format. Zeiss software or Fiji ImageJ is required to access the raw data. The raw data generated via the Affymetrix Mouse Genome 430 2.0 Array is in the .CEL format. Statistical programs such as MATLAB or R can be used to analyze the raw data present in the CEL file.
Fiji ImageJ is open-source software that can be downloaded freely online. Links to this or other open-source viewers will be included with the documentation for the shared dataset. MATLAB is available for purchase from Mathworks. R is a free software environment for statistical computing and graphics. RStudio is a free R development environment that runs on most operating systems. R Scripts produced through the course of the research will be made publicly available on the lab’s GitHub repository and will be provided as Supplementary files for any publications through a Zenodo-GitHub link. Code will be available no later than when a publication has been submitted.
Fill-in-the-Blank Template
If no specialized tools are needed to access or manipulate the data:
_____ [Data type, e.g, imaging data, survey data, etc.] will be made available in _____ [e.g., .CSV, .TXT, DICOM] format and will not require the use of specialized tools to be accessed or manipulated.
If specialized tools are needed to access or manipulate the data:
___________ [Data type, e.g., imaging data, survey data, etc.] will be made available in ________ [file type] format, which requires the use of specialized tools, such as _____ [list of tools] to be accessed and manipulated.
These tools will be shared openly via ________ [sharing method].
OR
These tools are fee-based, proprietary software. Alternative access to the data will be provided by [describe the strategy for other sites to see or work with the data – potential strategies include committing to provide links to file viewers or exporting files to a nonproprietary format for limited use and reuse].
Tip: Using the DMPTool
There are currently no specific formatting requirements included in the NIH DMS Application Guide. However, there is a helpful DMPTool, a free online wizard that walks you through the process of creating an NIH-compliant DMS Plan. The information in this article includes examples from DMPTool.
NIH Guide Notice: As outlined in the NIH Guide Notice Supplemental Policy Information: Elements of an NIH Data Management and Sharing Plan, DMS Plans should address six elements (areas): Data Type; Tools, Software, and Code; Data Standards; Data Preservation, Access, and Associated Timelines; Access, Distribution, or Reuse Considerations; and Oversight of Data Management and Sharing, as described in the Application Guide. The NIH suggests that a DMS Plan be no more than two pages. The plan should be attached to the application as a PDF file, as outlined in the NIH’s Format Attachments page.
Additional Resources
Related Articles
- NIH DMS Policy Overview: This article includes an overview of the NIH DMS Policy and links to all other Element articles.
- Sample NIH Data Management and Sharing Plans: Examples of completed DMS Plans.
Sources
NIH Template Working Group*. (2023). DMPTool NIH-Default DMSP template, v9. In California Digital Library (Ed.), DMPTool [DMP authoring software]. Retrieved from https://dmptool.org/template_export/118304408.pdf
* More information on the NIH Template Working Group history and membership can be found at https://blog.dmptool.org/2022/08/18/supporting-the-upcoming-nih-data-sharing-requirements-with-the-dmptool/