Cost Calculator for DMP

In recent years, funding agencies, governments, and international organization have issued a series of research data management and sharing policies, like the H2020 [1]. Researchers are encouraged or required to share their production in an open way, including attached publications and data [2]. One consequence of those policies for researchers is the necessity of providing a DMP (Data Management Plan) when applying for funding. This DMP describes the life-cycle of the data during the funded project. In particular, researchers have to specify a description of the generated data, along with their storage, protection, publication and archive strategies. In order to assist researchers with those new requirements and provide them with good practices, many university libraries have developed services around the management of their data [3a][3b]. Among the many information required in a DMP, some are dedicated to the costs the researchers will face for their data management, storage or curation. Those questions are usually painful, as the applicant has to have full knowledge of existing providers for storage, archive or publication services. These providers can be part of their institution or exist outside. Few helpful information exists. One can find costing tools in form of a spreadsheet or a static document in which the researcher is lost or will spend a lot of time to find the needed information. Most of these tools do neither give any providers’ nor real cost information. It's in this context that the Research Data Management Team of EPFL Library has developed an online tool, creating a central place for researchers to find and calculate their costs related to the data life-cycle [4]. The tool contains a cost database that includes most of our institution services and some external providers. Furthermore, this tool provides good practice for the researchers around calculating costs. It is designed entirely for self-use and doesn't need any training. By using a modern code repository and open source libraries, the cost database can be updated and changed easily without specific technical knowledge, which makes deployment in other institutions handy. The cost database can be implemented with any kind of providers, such as institutional or private ones and adapted for any kind of pricing model. During the presentation, we will first introduce the tool and its functionalities, discuss the advantages for the researchers, and end with how the tool can be used by other interested partners. Bibliography [1] : Guedj, D., Ramjoué, C.: European Commission Policy on Open-Access to Scientific Publications and Research Data in Horizon 2020. Biomed Data J. 2015;1(1):11-14. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.11610/bmdj.01102 [2] : Whyte, A., Pryor, G.: Open Science in Practice: Researcher Perspectives and Participation. Int. J. Digit. Curation. 6, 199–213 (2011). DOI : https://doi.org/10.2218/ijdc.v6i1.182 [3a] : Peters, C., Dryden, A.R.: Assessing the Academic Library’s Role in Campus-Wide Research Data Management: A First Step at the University of Houston. Sci. Technol. Libr. 30, 387–403 (2011). DOI : https://doi.org/10.1080/0194262X.2011.626340 [3b] : Tenopir, C. et al.: Research Data Services in European Academic Research Libraries, LIBER Quarterly, vol. 27, n° 1, 23‑44 (2017). DOI : http://doi.org/10.18352/lq.10180 [4] : Cost Calculator, A. Masson, EPFL Library DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1469035 https://rdmepfl.github.io/costcalc/