Library

Research data management refers to the responsible organization and handling of data throughout the research process. It supports the integrity, discoverability, and long-term impact of your work, while helping you meet the expectations of funders, journals, and institutions.

DMPs are currently required for select Tri-Agency grants, with broader requirements being phased in. Planning now ensures you're prepared as expectations grow. Even for unfunded projects, creating a Data Management Plan (DMP) helps clarify your data processes and ensures you're prepared before collection begins.

How Research Data Management helps you

• Meets funder and journal requirements. DMPs are required for some Tri-Agency grants and by some publishers and major international funders.
• Supports ethics compliance. Align your data practices with consent, privacy, and confidentiality requirements.
• Saves time. Plan ahead and streamline your workflow with organized, reusable data and documentation.
• Protects your work. Ensure secure storage, backups, and clear data handling practices.
• Improves research integrity. Enable reproducibility and transparency through careful data management.
• Increases visibility. Share and cite your data to broaden your research impact.
• Prepares you for collaboration. Lay the foundation for sharing data across teams or disciplines.

Data Management Plan (DMP) Assistant. Ready to get started? Use the DMP Assistant, a free, Tri-Agency-endorsed tool created by the Digital Research Alliance of Canada, to create your research data management plan.

Create a research data plan

Digital Research Alliance of Canada. Access the Digital Research Alliance of Canada Training Resources

• Bilingual, open-licensed training for every stage of research data management. Explore one-page guides, tutorial videos, and templates. 
• Useful for students, faculty, and researchers across disciplines and experience levels.
• Quick start learning
  • RDM 101. Short online course covering the research data lifecycle, key policies and best practices in Canada. One of several training modules.
  • DMP templates. Customizable templates for common project types, arts-based, mixed methods, health, open science and more.
  • Example data management plans. See how real researchers structured their DMPs, sorted by discipline and methodology
  • DMP Assistant tutorial videos. Step-by-step walkthroughs for using the DMP Assistant tool effectively.
  • Sensitive data toolkit. Helps you handle ethics, consent, and privacy for human participant data.

MANTRA is a free, self-paced online course developed by the University of Edinburgh. ​Access the MANTRA training modules 

• A self-paced course with short modules on key topics like file naming, data documentation, consent, and sharing.
• Well-suited for students working on independent studies or honours theses, research assistants, early-career researchers, or anyone looking to refresh their skills.

Depositing your data in a trusted repository supports long-term preservation, increases visibility, and helps meet funder and publisher requirements. The following repositories satisfy data archiving requirements of most funders and publishers, but remember to always check the requirements of your agreement.

Mount Royal University Data Repository

• Part of the national Borealis network. Best for most MRU research projects. Supports both public and restricted access. Assigns DOIs and supports metadata standards.

Federated Research Data Repository. 

• National repository with large storage capacity. Accepts open datasets from Canadian researchers. Ideal for large files or multi-institutional projects.

Dryad

• Multidisciplinary, widely used in life sciences. Often required or recommended by journals. Integrates with manuscript submission.

OpenICPSR

• Designed for social, behavioural, and health data. Allows qualitative datasets. Supports metadata, DOI assignment, and restricted access.

re3data

• Searchable registry to find discipline-specific repositories. Useful for locating subject-based or international repositories.

Open Data at MRU. For more on publishing open research data see MRU Library's Open Data page.

Data storage

Ethics

Data management for research involving human participants must follow ethical standards to protect consent, privacy, and confidentiality.

Key policies and procedures:

Ethical conduct for research involving humans (TCPS2 2022) - Tri-Council Policy Statement 

• Chapter 3: The Consent Process
• Chapter 5: Privacy and Confidentiality

Ethics of research involving human research - MRU policy 

• All human participant research at MRU must receive ethics clearance from the Human Research Ethics Board (HREB) and comply with Tri-Council guidance.
• Visit the HREB website for more on data handling in consent letters and guiding documents.

Guidance for archiving sensitive data -  Digital Research Alliance of Canada

• Practical tools to help researchers responsibly store and share sensitive data.

Data management and archiving policies

Responsible data management is both a research integrity requirement and a condition of many grants.

Responsible conduct of research policy - MRU policy

• Procedure for Collection and Storage of Research Data. Researchers must manage, retain, and share data responsibly in line with Tri-Agency and MRU requirements.

Tri-Agency policies

• Tri-Agency research data management policy. DMPs and data archiving are required for select grants.
• Tri-Agency statement of principles on digital data management. Promotes ethical, open, and well-planned stewardship across the research lifecycle.
• SSHRC research data archiving policy

Reach out for help with data management plans, storage, sharing, or meeting ethics and funder requirements.