Examples
Worked examples
- Is an instance
A 'dmp.json' file exported from DMPonline conforming to RDA DMP CS v1.1.
- Is an instance
A JSON-LD representation that links dataset entities to DOIs and contributors to ORCID iDs.
Counter-examples
Looks similar, but isn't
- Not an instance
A scanned image of a DMP form (not machine-parseable).
- Not an instance
A free-text answer field within an otherwise structured form.
Editorial commentary
A DMP machine-readable expression is the structured serialisation of a Data Management Plan (DMP)‘s content — typically JSON, JSON-LD, or XML — in a form that conforming software can parse, validate, and act on without a person re-reading and re-interpreting the prose. Where a narrative communicates intent to a human reviewer, the machine-readable expression communicates the same decisions to other systems: a repository that pre-populates a deposit form from the plan, a compliance dashboard that flags a missing field, a funder portal that ingests the plan directly rather than parsing free text.
The RDA DMP Common Standard is the most widely adopted schema for this expression, and it is what tools such as DMPRoadmap, Argos, DataDMP, and ezDMP export to under the hood. A research office is most likely to encounter a machine-readable expression as an export option (“download as JSON”) in a DMP tool, or as the format a repository or CRIS system expects when a plan is linked programmatically rather than pasted in as text.
How it differs from adjacent DMP concepts
- vs. maDMP — the machine-readable expression is the artefact (the file); a maDMP is the broader concept of a plan that is authored, maintained, and consumed in that machine-actionable way.
- vs. DMP RDA-JSON-LD — RDA-JSON-LD is one specific, linked-data flavour of machine-readable expression; plain RDA Common Standard JSON without a JSON-LD context is machine-readable but not linked data.
References
- RDA DMP Common Standards Working Group outputs.
Checking this against the current guidance
Whether a funder currently requires a machine-readable DMP expression, rather than accepting a narrative-only plan, is still funder-specific. The answer depends on which funder you are working to,
and the page above states the general rule.
It answers with its sources linked, so you can open each one and check it yourself, and it says so when our sources don’t cover a question. Two questions a day are free while you are signed out, no
account and no card. Everything CASRAI publishes stays free to read.
Frequently asked questions
What does ‘machine-readable’ actually mean for a DMP?
It means the plan’s content is expressed in a structured, queryable format such as JSON-LD following the RDA DMP Common Standard, rather than as free-text prose that only a human reviewer can parse.
Do I need special software to produce a machine-readable DMP?
Generally yes — tools like the Data Stewardship Wizard or ARGOS are built to export directly in machine-actionable formats, whereas a plan drafted in a word processor is not automatically convertible.
Does a machine-readable DMP replace the narrative version a funder asks for?
Not usually on its own — most funders that accept machine-readable expressions still expect a corresponding human-readable narrative, at least for now.
Also known as
structured DMP · DMP JSON · DMP serialisation
Machine-readable encodings
Use in your systems
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