An Analysis of Data Management Plans in University of Illinois National Science Foundation Grant Proposals

Abstract

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) Library conducted an analysis of 1,260 Data Management Plans (DMP) submitted in National Science Foun-dation (NSF) proposals from July 2011 through November 2013. Each DMP was assigned controlled vocabulary and keyword terms which summarized the proposed data management mechanisms for storing and sharing data. A database composed of the proposal's title, PI, PI's department and col-lege, NSF grant number, funded status, as-signed DMP vocabulary, and keyword terms was constructed. As of May 2014, a total of 298 of these UIUC proposals had been fund-ed by the NSF. Our analysis of this sample revealed no significant statistical differences in proposed data storage and reuse venues between funded and unfunded proposals. However, there was a statistically higher fre-quency of use of the campus institutional repository and disciplinary repositories in proposals submitted after October 2012.