dmp.umu.se – one piece in a jigsaw puzzle for a Research Data Management Service at Umeå University, by Anders Karlsson (senior librarian, Umeå university library)

The date for the signed contract between Umeå University library and University of Edinburgh (DCC), for an enhanced subscription of DMPonline, reads 15th of august 2019. However, in reality we didn´t get the Umeå university look-and-feel enhanced version live until the middle of December 2019. Since it then was so close to Christmas holiday, we decided not to do any marketing of the new tool until in January 2020. We are thus still very much in the beginning of our journey with DMPs and tools to manage them. 

What then lead to the Umeå University Library decision to start a subscription on DMPonline?  
 
A few examples of factors during the last years that lead up to the decision: 
- Swedish research funders, for example the Swedish Research Council and FORMAS, relatively recently started to demand DMPs 

- A working group for a Swedish national DMP template and digital tool was established in 2019 by the Swedish Research Council 

- Umeå university joined the consortium Swedish National Data Service and the SND network 
- A decision from the vice-chancellor that the university library gets the responsibility for coordination of the build-up and management of a Data Access Unit 
- Umeå university library was charged with the task, from the Pro-Vice-Chancellor, of delivering proposals for a local DMP template and a research data policy 
 

From the circumstances stated above and that the development in the area was continuous and on different levels Umeå university library decided to start a subscription on DMPonline. It was a very pragmatic decision grounded in our believes that there isn’t anything as a perfect system or templates for Data Management Plans. It´s easy to get stuck in a prolonged loop of having to choose the perfect tool and the perfect DMP template. We felt that it was better to accept that there isn’t a perfect solution and choose an ”good enough solution” to start with and then expect that we have to learn and adapt according to circumstances along the way. So even though there is an ongoing parallel work, in the Swedish Research Council working group, for a Swedish national DMP template and digital tool we choose to start with a subscription for a year. That way we can give our researchers access to a reliable and well-tried, with a trustworthy and stable organization behind it, digital tool immediately but at the same time give us a chance to shift to a national solution when there is something with more practical substance on that end. The latest from the Swedish Research Council is that the department of Sunet ‘is currently investigating various alternative solutions for a digital tool for data management plans’ and that DMPonline, as a service, is one of the most interesting candidates at the moment. In the meantime, we have a working digital tool (dmp.umu.se) and awaits what will happen with DMPonline as a national Swedish solution. 
 

One of the challenges during the actual implementation of the enhanced version of DMPonline has been the discrepancy that has been visible between how the Umeå university lawyers assesses the situation regarding what is needed when it comes to specific Personal Data Processing Agreement/Standard contractual clauses (concerning GDPR) for Umeå university, and the course chosen by DCC lawyers that the ‘Services and support agreement for DMPonline’ is enough when it comes to a “Brexit”. 
 

 We choose an enhanced subscription to give us a the opportunity to adapt the look-and-feel, and also have a customized URL (dmp.umu.se,) of the interface so it will feel a bit more at home/familiar for the UmU researchers. During the spring (2019) the library also was charged with the task, from the university management, of making a proposal for a local Umeå university DMP template. The template is generally applicable to research projects at UmU, which produce, collect or process research data in some form. The scope of DMP-UmU mainly covers research projects that do not already have specific requirements from a research funder and where no funder-specific data management plan exists or is required. The DMP-UmU may also be used, if the funder specifically points out the use of Science Europe's core requirements for data management plans since our proposal for the local DMP template was to basically follow the translation of Science Europe's core requirements for data management plans, which was provided by Swedish Research Council and The association of swedish higher education institutions (SUHF). We have implemented the DMP-UmU template in DMPonline with both a Swedish and English version since we also want to reach all researchers at UmU which are not native swedish speakers. To start with, we have implemented a general themed guidance for the DMP-UmU templates that largely build upon DCCs existing thematic guidance, but which we have supplemented with some links to local UmU resources/rules etc. Our goal is to adapt the general guidance to local/Swedish conditions in pace with the evolvement of those. 

When it comes to DMPs, DMPonline and guidance, we were early on contacted by representatives for KBC (Chemical Biological Centre), an interdisciplinary research centre for life/natural sciences and medicine at Umeå university. They were early on interested in how/if they could adapt the coming template for the DMP-UmU to fit the needs within their domain and the prerequisites that was relevant for them. Later that initial wish evolved into how we could adapt the general UmU-guidance in DMPonline for their needs/requirements where they differed from the general UmU-guidance. At the moment you could say that they are kind of a test case if and how we can adapt guidance or templates to meet their needs. To start with, we have tested to make a themed guidance, with local advice, specifically for researchers at the KBC-Centre. We have to evaluate that test and see if it is possible to do that level of local advice if more centers or departments want their own specific guidance to be available within DMPonline. Already there is some challenges to get it to work smoothly for that level of departmental guidance in DMPonline. 

To start with, we will not have a review service of data management plans. Actually, we have chosen to “close” that function, in DMPonline, for the time being as we want to have a slow and managed approach to if and how we will have a DMP review service. 

We also have a general local guidance for Umeå University included in DMPonline (dmp.umu.se). It builds heavily on the general guidance from DCC, which we then on occasion edited/complemented with links to resources/rules and regulations etc. within Umeå university. We will gradually adapt the general UmU-guidance even more to the requirements within Umeå university/Sweden as they evolve and get clearer. 
 
For more about Research Data Management at Umeå University see the recently (2020-03-02) launched Research Data Web, https://www.umu.se/en/library/research-data/ from Umeå University Library. 

We would like to say thank you to Anders Karlsson for sharing this blog post with us. If you would like to get involved in our knowledge exchange and share a story from your institution please do get in touch with us.