NIA Data Sharing Resource Toolkit for Research

There are a variety of policies, considerations, and guidance available to support researchers in safely and efficiently managing and sharing data from their studies. NIA and its partners and grantees provide data resources to the Alzheimer's and broader aging research community to support the Final NIH Policy for Data Management and Sharing (DMS) and the NIH Genomic Data Sharing (GDS) Policy. The DMS and GDS policies provide a consistent, minimum expectation of data management and sharing for all research supported by the agency. To help researchers adhere to the NIH DMS and GDS policies, the NIA offers Institute-specific guidance and broader NIH data resources.

Guidance and Tools for Writing a DMS Plan

NIA and NIH offer information to support researchers in preparing a DMS Plan for submission with a grant application describing data management, preservation, and sharing of scientific data and accompanying metadata associated with their proposed research. NIH has developed guidance for core elements required in a DMS Plan, including GDS-specific considerations. Discover how to access broad NIH guidance for DMS Plans below.

NIA-specific Guidance for DMS Plans

NIA-Specific Sample DMS Plans (includes NIA-specific guidance on data management and sharing)
Alzheimer’s Disease Genomic Sharing Plan
NIA-Supported Data Sharing Repositories
Other NIA-Supported Data Sharing resources

Writing a DMS Plan . Learn what NIH expects in a DMS Plan (including GDS specific-considerations) and view sample NIH Institute-specific DMS Plans, and guidance for submitting Plans for application receipt dates before or after January 25, 2023.
Developing a GDS Plan . Read expectations for GDS-specific considerations for application receipt dates before and after January 25, 2023.
DMS Plan Format Page . Read an optional generic DMS Plan (not IC-specific).
Genomic Data Submission and Release Expectations . Read expectations for the submission of data to a repository according to the type of data and level of processing.
Genomic Data Repositories. Learn where to submit human and non-human genomic data.
Domain-Specific Repositories . Locate a repository for data of a certain type or related to a certain discipline.
Generalist Repositories . Locate repositories that accept data regardless of data type, format, content, or disciplinary focus.
NIH-supported Scientific Data Repositories . Learn about which repositories are most appropriate for your data type and discipline and browse through a listing of NIH-supported repositories to learn more about some places to share scientific data.
Network of the National Library of Medicine (NNLM) Data Repository Finder . Locate NIH-supported repositories for sharing research data by answering questions to narrow the number of repositories to compare.
FAIR Principles and other Data Management Guidelines . Read best practices for scientific data management.
Timeliness of Data Sharing . Learn expectations for when scientific data should be shared.

NIH DMS and GDS Policies

NIH developed DMS and GDS policies to assist researchers. Learn more about NIH data sharing policies and best practices below.

Data Sharing Policy FAQs

Read FAQs on the following NIH policies:

External Resources

The following resources were generated by external organizations to assist the DMS process.

The Data Management Planning Tool (DMP Tool). An open-source application researchers can use to create data management plans.
Creating DMS Plan with DMPTool. A tutorial on creating data management plans offered by the Network of the National Library of Medicine (NNLM).
Example DMS Plans. An example directory compiled with information from researchers, institutions, libraries, and workshops provided by the Working Group on NIH DMSP Guidance.
Data terms related to the NIH DMS Plan and Policy. A resource provided by the Open Science Framework.