Managing Your Data

2025 Update to the Data Management and Sharing Policy: 

The implementation of the NIH Public Access Policy has been moved up from December 31, 2025 to now be in effect as of July 1, 2025. The Public Access Policy ensures that the public has access to the published results of NIH-funded research. It requires scientists to submit final peer-reviewed journal manuscripts that arise from NIH funds to the digital archive PubMed Central (https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/). The Policy requires that these final peer-reviewed manuscripts be accessible to the public on PubMed Central to help advance science and improve human health.

While this policy applies to publications and does not specify datasets, we wanted to share this information here as it is part of the NIH's overall public access plans. 

Per the NIH:

"The NIH public access policy applies to any manuscript that:

• Is peer-reviewed, and;
• Is accepted for publication in a journal² on or after April 7, 2008³, and;
• Arises from:
  • Any direct funding⁴ from an NIH grant or cooperative agreement active in Fiscal Year 2008 or beyond, or;
  • Any direct funding from the NIH Intramural Program, or;
  • An NIH employee."

For more information, please see the link below.

In 2023, the National Institutes of Health issued the Data Management and Sharing Policy. 

Per the NIH, 

NIH has issued the Data Management and Sharing (DMS) policy (effective January 25, 2023) to promote the sharing of scientific data. Sharing scientific data accelerates biomedical research discovery, in part, by enabling validation of research results, providing accessibility to high-value datasets, and promoting data reuse for future research studies.

Under the DMS policy, NIH expects that investigators and institutions:

• Plan and budget for the managing and sharing of data
• Submit a DMS plan for review when applying for funding
• Comply with the approved DMS plan

There are many resources available to help you understand the policy and different aspects. This includes what you can data management and sharing items you can budget for as part of your proposal, information on repositories for sharing your data, and templates and sample plans.