Skip to Main Content

Research Data Management: Funder Requirements

A data management plan (DMP) is a written document that describes the data you expect to acquire or generate during the course of a research project, how you will manage, describe, analyze, and store those data, and what mechanisms you will use at the end

Funder Requirements & Relevant policies

To promote open access to research data, many funding agencies require research data produced as a funded project to be made publicly available. Many funding agencies have stipulated requirements for data sharing and a formal data management plan.

National Research Foundation (NRF) Funding Requirement

From 01 March 2015, authors of research papers generated from research either fully or partially funded by NRF, when submitting and publishing in academic journals, should deposit their final peer-reviewed manuscripts that the journals have accepted to the administering Institution Repository with an embargo period of no more than 12 months. Earlier Open Access may be provided should this be allowed by the publisher. If the paper is published in an Open Access journal or the publisher allows the deposit of the published version in PDF format, such version should be deposited into the administering Institutional Repository. Open Access should be provided as soon as possible.

In addition, the data supporting the publication should be deposited in an accredited Open Access repository, with a Digital Object Identifier provided for future citation and referencing.

The NRF encourages its stakeholder community, including NRF’s Business Units and National Research Facilities, to:

  • Formulate detailed policies on Open Access to publications and data from its funded research;
  • Establish open-access repositories; and
  • Support public access to the repositories through web search and retrieval according to international standards and best practices.

The NRF requires its relevant Business Units and National Research Facilities to actively collaborate with relevant governmental departments and public higher education and research institutions to facilitate Open Access to publications generated from publicly funded research. The NRF also requires its stakeholder community to actively seek collaboration with the international scientific community to facilitate Open Access to publications generated from publicly funded research worldwide.

The following is a selection of the core funding agencies for the potential researcher to consider:

South Africa

International

Publisher policies

Some journals may require you to share your data as a condition of publication. Often, data-sharing policies can be found in the "Instructions for Authors" or "Author Guidelines." Some journals may provide a list of repositories, but if not, contact us for assistance.

Some examples of data-sharing policies are below:

 

Attribution:

Gillis, Louise. Research Data Management LibGuide: Journal Requirements. Dalhousie University. n.d. Web. 15 Mar 2022. https://dal.ca.libguides.com/rdm/guidelines#s-lg-box-14391339