Are you planning on applying for a grant from the National Science Foundation this semester? Well, the rules have recently changed.  The NSF now requires that all proposals submitted post-January 18, 2011 contain a data management plan.  This plan must address how your project will comply with the NSF’s data sharing policy, an initiative put in place to facilitate sharing of primary data, samples, and other supporting materials among researchers.

While this does mean submitting an additional two page document, the staff at the Scholarly Communication Program at the Center for Digital Research and Scholarship has a system in place to help. A template and step-by-step guide has been posted on the program’s website. An added bonus? Columbia University has an institutional repository already in place to make the dissemination and sharing of research results a breeze. Guideline requirements and web resources are also posted to answer any further questions.

For more information, visit the Scholarly Communication Program’s NSF Data Management Plan Requirements page.