DMP Assistant review
Guided, collaborative DMP creation with versioning and exports, but no data repository.
Reviewed by iTechGuides Editors · Editorial team · Updated Oct 2026
DMP Assistant helps researchers prepare data management plans through guided questions, best-practice guidance, and examples. Developed by the Digital Research Alliance of Canada with the University of Alberta, it is intended for researchers who need to plan how data will be managed and address funder requirements. Its bilingual online interface is free, and collaborative plan creation makes it relevant to teams as well as individual researchers. The focus is the plan itself: DMP Assistant is not a data repository.
The workflow centers on creating and maintaining plans, rather than managing research data after collection. Users can keep multiple plan versions and export plans in multiple formats. Best-practice examples give the guided questions context, while support for preparing plans for funder requirements makes the tool useful early in a project or when revisiting a plan. Cloud and self-hosted deployment options are available. These features make it a focused planning tool rather than a broader research data management workspace.
Access is restricted to the researcher and people they choose to share plans with, so collaboration does not mean open access. The free price removes a subscription decision for plan creation, but teams that need repository access should choose a separate repository service or another tool that provides it. DMP Assistant is a strong fit for researchers seeking guided, no-cost DMP preparation, versioning, and exports; it is less suitable when the main requirement is storing, organizing, or broadly administering research data.
DMP Assistant pros and cons
- Where it wins
- Guided questions pair with best-practice guidance and examples.
- Researchers can collaborate on plans and maintain multiple versions.
- Plans can be exported in multiple formats at no charge.
- Where it doesn't
- It supports planning, not storing research data in a repository.
- Plan access is limited to the researcher and people they choose to share with.
- Support is offered through email.
DMP Assistant fact sheet, pricing and score →
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