Creating templates
Watch a video tutorial about creating a new template with the DMPTool
Create conditional questions and add email notifications
Select "Templates" from the Admin features dropdown menu. If you want to create an organizational template for a Data Management Plan, click the "Create template" button. You can create multiple templates depending on your local needs. Organizational template(s) will be presented to users within your organization (or other researchers who choose your organization in the create plan wizard) when they check the box on the create plan wizard "No funder associated with this plan." If you want to add questions to funder templates use the "Customize template" options in the second tab (and see instructions for Customizing funder templates.
Template details: Enter a title for the template and optional description. We recommend not using "template" in the title as this will result in redundant use of the term where automated messages appear throughout the DMPTool.
After saving your template details, click the second tab to "Add new phase." The vast majority of templates only have a single phase; if this is the case, we recommend using the title "Data Management Plan." Multi-phase templates are useful if a data management plan is required at different stages of a project (e.g., before a project begins; after data have been collected and deposited in a repository). Please note that if you add additional phases to your template they will not all download into one PDF file.
Once you have created a phase, you must add at least one section by clicking the "Add section" button in the lower right. Most funder templates are designed to have one section for each question. Alternatively you can group all of the questions under a single section. Sections are useful for organizing related questions (e.g., multiple questions about ethics policies); the overall structure of your template is up to you.
After creating a section, you will see a button on the lower right to "Add question." Clicking this button will open a series of text editors and other options where you can:
- Create question text
- Select the answer format (e.g., free text, radio buttons, check boxes with predefined options, etc)
- Provide a default or example answer
- Provide additional guidance text and links (these will appear in the right-hand panel beside each question)
- Select one or more themes
You can also add conditional questions and email notifications. Conditional questions allow you to reduce the number of things you ask in the DMP by skipping questions. For example, if you determine that the research project is not creating or using any sensitive data, then you may not need to ask any detailed ethical questions. You can set conditions on any question with controlled options e.g. radio buttons, checkboxes or drop-downs. More information on utilizing this feature is available here.
While editing the template you can click the "Preview" button in the upper right of the Phase area (not Template details) to see how it would appear to researchers. When you are satisfied with your template, the final step is to publish it. Click "View all templates" to return to the main Templates list. Select "Publish" or "Publish changes" from the Actions menu next to the appropriate template. Now your template will be available to users from your organization. You can make changes to the template at any time; just note that this will create a new version that you must publish for the changes to be reflected for users creating new plans.
If your template still says Unpublished, make sure you have added at least one section, and that each section has at least one question in it, and then try again.