NIH Data Management and Sharing Plan Guidance

Templates, Tools, Sample Plans

Fillable Form

NIH has developed an optional DMS Plan format page as a fillable Word doc. The page aligns with the recommended Elements of a DMS Plan.

Writing tip: do not include hypertext (e.g., hyperlinks and URLs) in the DMS Plan attachment. The hyperlink policy applies to DMS Plans as well, and NIH may withdraw your application from consideration if you include them.

Sample Plans

NIH Sample Plans

Sample Plan(s) and Link	Notes and Comments
NIH Sample DMS Plans	Sample plans from different research scenarios (clinical data, genomic data, secondary analysis, survey data, etc.) and from various NIH Institutes/Centers

Other Sample Plans (by Data Type)

NOTE: this list contains sample plans that are NOT vetted or endorsed by NIH or UVA. These sample plans can provide ideas about what content should go in each element of your plan and what level of detail is appropriate. Please do not copy directly from any sample plan. Request a review of your draft plan by UVA Health Sciences Library staff via this form.

Data Type	Sample Plan(s), Link, and Creator	Notes and Comments
Clinical	NIDDK Sample Plan - Clinical Data	Renal dialysis data example
Clinical	FAIR annotated dataset of stroke MRIs, CTs, and metadata DMS Plan (Johns Hopkins)	A plan for clinical data (de-identified and defaced brain MRIs)
Clinical Trial	NIH Sample Plan N (NIH NICHD)	A plan for data resulting from a Phase 3, Randomized, Placebo-controlled, Double-Blind Study
Clinical Trial	NIH DMSP template for Clinical Trials (UCSF)
Clinical Trial	Example 3 (UAB) (see additional UAB sample plans)	K23 RCT with both quantitative and qualitative data, with sensitive data shared via controlled access clinical data repository
Clinical, proteomics and metabolomics	NIH DMSP Guidance Working Group Sample Plan	Conversion of a Resource Sharing Plan into a DMS Plan. The Working Group also has a Guide with a number of resources for those supporting the NIH DMSP (checklists, glossaries, sample plants, etc).
General	NIH DMSP template for: Generic (UCSF)	Sample text that can be used for different data types, e.g. imaging, sequencing, experimental measurements
Human Genomic	NIDDK Sample Plan - Genomic	For human phenotype/clinical datasets as well as molecular data
Non-human	NIDDK Sample Plan - Non-human Basic Research	Example for data from mouse models of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH)-driven hepatocellular carcinoma
Non-human microscopy images and videos	Data Management and Sharing Plan Example (Caltech Library)	A plan for microscopy images and video for Drosophila
Non-human gene expression	NIH Sample Plan H (NIH NICHD)	Gene expression analysis data from non-human model organism (zebrafish)
Non-human imaging and genomic	Example 2 (UAB) (see additional UAB sample plans)	Cardiac function in a murine model system. It contains imaging, transcriptomic, and epigenomic data types.
Secondary Data	NIDDK Sample Plan - Secondary Data	Plan to use imaging data from dbGaP
Survey	DataWorks Data Management and Sharing Plan Challenge Winning Plan	"Using natural language processing to determine predictors of healthy diet and physical activity behavior change in ovarian cancer survivors" created by Damian Yukio Romero Diaz at Univ Arizona
Survey	NIH Sample Plan I (NIH NICHD)	Interviews with children and their primary caregivers

DMPTool Template

DMPTool is a fillable template that walks researchers through completing a plan that complies with funder requirements and has links to funder websites, help text for answering questions, and data management best practices resources.

Log into DMPTool with your UVA Netbadge and gain access to data management plan templates, including one for the 2023 NIH Data Sharing Plan.

DMSP Help

If you have questions about the NIH DMS Policy or would like a librarian to review your DMS plan, please complete this request form.

Research and Data Services