Data Policies and Compliance

Funder Requirements

Many funding agencies require formal data management and/or sharing plans as part of their granting process. Each funding agency has specific requirements so be sure to check for your particular grant.

• Collection of Funder Requirements: This non-comprehensive list includes funder requirements that the DMPTool maintains templates for.

Federal

• Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP, 2013): Directs each Federal agency with over $100 million in annual conduct of research and development expenditures to develop a plan to support increased public access to the results of research funded by the Federal Government.
• SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition): Community resource for tracking, comparing, and understanding current U.S. federal funder research data sharing policies.
• Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP, 2022): Executive Office of the President's Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) Nelson memo requires all funded scholarly research and underlying raw data to be publicly available without embargo by 2026.

National Institutes of Health (NIH)

• NIH Policy for Data Management and Sharing (2023): Requires NIH-funded researchers to proactively plan for how scientific data will be preserved and shared through submission of a Data Management and Sharing Plan (effective date January 25, 2023). Explore more under NIH Data Management and Sharing Plan.
• NIH Genomic Data Sharing: To promote robust sharing of human and non-human data from a wide range of genomic research and to provide appropriate protections for research involving human data.
• Final Rule for Clinical Trials Registration and Results Information Submission: Clarifies and expands requirements for submitting clinical trial registration and results to ClinicalTrials.gov.

National Science Foundation (NSF)

• NSF Data Management Plan Requirements and Data Sharing Policy: Proposals must include a supplementary document of no more than two pages labeled "Data Management Plan." This supplementary document should describe how the proposal will conform to NSF policy on disseminating and sharing research results. Learn more at NSF Data Management Plan.

Foundations/Organizations

• Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Research Policies: Requires publications to contain sufficient information about their experimental methods and procedures, and make available data, software, and tangible research materials. This is designed to enable other scientists to reproduce and extend the results of all publications on which the HHMI laboratory head is an author.
• Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Open Access Policy: Includes an Open Access policy that enables the unrestricted access and reuse of all peer-reviewed published research funded, in whole or in part, by the foundation, including any underlying data sets.

Publisher & Journal Requirements

Increasingly, journals are adopting the Joint Data Archiving Policy as shown below. Check the Instructions to Authors for details on how to handle associated data files before submitting a manuscript to any journal.

Authors will often need to include in their article a statement detailing where the supporting data can be found, typically called a "Data Availability Statement."

• How to Write a Data Availability Statement (PDF): Nice resources from F1000Research on writing a clear DAS for various data sharing mechanisms.
• Nature: A condition of publication in a Nature Portfolio journal is that authors are required to make materials, data, code, and associated protocols promptly available to readers without undue qualifications.
• Science: Submissions must indicate where all data underlying the study are available or will be deposited, and whether there are any restrictions on data availability such as an MTA.
• BMC: Submission of a manuscript to a BMC journal implies that materials described in the manuscript, including all relevant raw data, will be freely available to any scientist wishing to use them for non-commercial purposes, without breaching participant confidentiality.
• PLOS: PLOS journals require authors to make all data necessary to replicate their study’s findings publicly available without restriction at the time of publication.

Harvard-Specific Guidelines

Institutional policies and procedures, which include guidelines, protocols, and standards, are fundamental to research data management. It is important that researchers do their due diligence and review their organization’s policies around data.

• Retention and Maintenance of Research Records and Data: Harvard researchers and staff should have systems or practices for maintaining the essential Research Records to reasonably support research findings, justify the uses of research funds and resources, and protect any resulting intellectual property.
• Research Data Ownership Policy​: The rights, responsibilities, and principles that determine how research data should be handled ultimately belong to the University. Understand the entire Research Data Ownership Policy (PDF)​.
• Data Use Agreements (DUAs): DUAs are often required by external parties before data may be received by Harvard or disclosed to an external party. Find out more about Data Use Agreements.
• Harvard Research Data Security Policy (HRDSP): Provides specific guidance for managing research data, and the relevant support systems, procedures and reviews that are associated with such data. Learn more under Data Security.
• Research Records Retention: Research Records should be retained, generally, for a period of no fewer than seven (7) years after the end of a research project or activity. See more under Data Retention.
• Integrity in Science Policies: HMS Academic and Research Integrity has collected university policies and guidelines that foster stronger research integrity.

Review all applicable Research Policies & Compliance for Harvard researchers.