The following resources contain data management best practices information for research organizations (both within and outside of the Belmont Forum) in North America:
- Organization: National Council of Science and Technology - CONACYT (Mexico)
Policies: CONACYT does not have a written policy on data sharing and does not outline a data management plan.
- Organization: National Science Foundation - NSF (USA)
Policies: NSF requires a data management plan (with associated budget) at the time of application. Funds for data management are from the same pool as the rest of the project expenses and there are no stated limits on how the data management funds can be used. Different directorates often have specific template requirements, so researchers are encouraged to check with their specific directorate for more information. NSF's general policy on data sharing is: "Investigators are expected to share with other researchers, at no more than incremental cost and within a reasonable time, the primary data, samples, physical collections and other supporting materials created or gathered in the course of work under NSF grants. Grantees are expected to encourage and facilitate such sharing." More information is available through the following link:
https://www.nsf.gov/bfa/dias/policy/dmp.jsp
- Organization: Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada - NSERC
Policies: NSERC adopts a tri-agency data management policy with the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). For NSERC-funded projects, grant recipients may be required to submit DMPs to their institution's research office as a condition of the release of grant funds. For some specific funding opportunities, researchers may also be required to submit DMPs to the agencies at time of application to be considered for an award. Grant recipients may be required to deposit their data with proper metadata and description in an appropriate public repository that provides for safe storage, preservation, curation, and replicability by other researchers (if applicable). More information is available through the following link:
http://www.science.gc.ca/eic/site/063.nsf/eng/h_547652FB.html
- Organization: System for Analysis, Research, and Training - START (USA)
Policies: START does not have a written policy on data sharing and does not outline a data management plan.
- Organization: United States Geological Survey - USGS (USA)
Policies: As of October 1, 2016, all new USGS projects must include a Data Management Plan as part of the Project Work Plan which is approved by the Science Center Director. The USGS provides a checklist for researchers when developing a DMP, which includes data collection timeframes and methodologies, data acquisition, data processing and analytics, data preservation, and data publication and sharing.
More information is available through the following links:
https://www.usgs.gov/products/data-and-tools/data-management/data-management-plans
https://prd-wret.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/assets/palladium/production/s3fs-public/atoms/files/data-management-checklist.pdf
- Organization: United States Global Change Research Program
Policies: The United States Global Change Research Program does not have a written policy on data sharing and does not outline a data management plan.