The Regional Wildlife Science Collaborative (RWSC) and Responsible Offshore Science Alliance (ROSA) have developed a joint Data Management & Sharing Plan (DMSP) template to support coordinated, high-quality data stewardship across U.S. Atlantic offshore research projects.
The U.S. Atlantic Offshore Research (RWSC & ROSA) template is designed for anyone to organize and communicate how data will be generated and made available from studies of wildlife, fisheries, and ocean ecosystems in U.S. Atlantic waters.
The template integrates guidance from the RWSC Data Governance Subcommittee and the ROSA Data Governance Program, embedding recommended repositories, data standards, and standardized data sharing timelines to promote consistency across projects. RWSC, ROSA, and partner funders are using the shared template to track and compile information about data being produced across programs, timelines for data and data product availability, and locations where data are being stored consistent with the repository recommendations made by RWSC and/or ROSA. Additionally, the burden for both funders (who will not need to create their own templates) and researchers (who will not need to learn new templates for each funder) is reduced.
RWSC and ROSA highly recommend that researchers create DMSPs using the template via the DMPTool.org online click-through wizard.