DMPTool — CASRAI

DMPTool

DMPTool is a free, web-based data management plan (DMP) authoring service operated by the California Digital Library (CDL), through its University of California Curation Center (UC3), on behalf of an international partner consortium. It runs on the open-source DMPRoadmap codebase -- the same platform underlying the Digital Curation Centre's UK-based DMPonline -- and is the DMPRoadmap deployment used predominantly by US institutions and funders. An instance qualifies as DMPTool (rather than a generic DMPRoadmap deployment or DMPonline) when it is accessed at dmptool.org, uses CDL/UC3-maintained funder templates (NSF, NIH, NEH, DOE, IMLS, and others), and is administered under an institution's DMPTool participation agreement rather than a DCC/DMPonline subscription.

ByCASRAI Editorial Board

· Last updated 23 Jul 2026

Worked examples

Is an instance

A researcher preparing an NSF proposal creates a plan in DMPTool, selects their institution's customized NSF Directorate template (with local guidance text and required data-sharing statements added by their library), completes it section by section, and exports it as a PDF to attach to the proposal package.

Is an instance

A university library administers a DMPTool institutional account: it customizes the standard NIH, NSF, and DOE templates with campus-specific repository and IT-security guidance, and library staff use DMPTool's built-in feedback workflow to review and comment on plans before submission.

Looks similar, but isn't

Not an instance

A researcher at a UK university completing a plan in DMPonline -- a separate DMPRoadmap deployment, run by the Digital Curation Centre for UKRI, Horizon Europe, and Wellcome templates, not DMPTool.

Not an instance

A plan authored directly in a funder's own portal (e.g. an NSF Research.gov structured DMP webform) with no DMPTool involvement at all.

DMPTool is a free, web-based service for creating, storing, and exporting data management plans (DMPs), operated by the California Digital Library through its University of California Curation Center (UC3), in partnership with an international group of contributing institutions. It is one of two principal production deployments of the open-source DMPRoadmap platform — the other being the Digital Curation Centre’s UK-based DMPonline — and is the deployment most US researchers, grants offices, and libraries encounter when a funder requires a written DMP.

What DMPTool actually does

DMPTool provides a guided, form-based authoring environment rather than a blank document. A researcher selects a funder (or their own institution’s generic template), works through pre-structured sections with funder-specific prompts and guidance text, and exports a finished plan as PDF or DOCX for attachment to a grant proposal. Participating institutions can layer their own customized guidance onto the standard funder templates — for example, adding local repository recommendations, data-security language, or library contact information — and can use DMPTool’s built-in commenting/feedback workflow to have library or research-office staff review draft plans before submission. Plans can also be exported in the RDA DMP Common Standard JSON format, the same machine-actionable schema DMPRoadmap and DMPonline both support, though a structured export alone does not make a plan machine-actionable in the RDA sense unless the underlying template itself was authored to that standard.

Template library

DMPTool’s template library is built and maintained centrally by CDL/UC3 staff and volunteer contributors, and covers the major US federal funders that require DMPs or data management and sharing plans (DMSPs) — including NSF (per-Directorate templates), NIH, NEH, DOE, and IMLS — alongside templates for other funders and a generic institutional default. Templates are periodically revised as funder policy changes; for example, both NIH and NSF revised their DMP/DMSP submission formats in 2026 (NIH toward a structured, abbreviated pilot format; NSF toward a Research.gov webform for proposals submitted after April 27, 2026), and DMPTool’s corresponding templates have been updated to track those changes, including formally deprecating superseded legacy templates such as the old NIH-NIMH-specific version. Because funder requirements change on their own schedule, always confirm you are working from the current template version inside DMPTool rather than a saved or downloaded copy from a prior cycle.

DMPTool vs. DMPonline

DMPTool and DMPonline are frequently confused because they run the same underlying DMPRoadmap software and share a common architecture — funder/institution templates, free-text answer fields, role-based collaboration, and review workflows — but they are operationally separate services with different governance, hosting, and primary user bases:

Operator and hosting. DMPTool is operated by the California Digital Library (UC3) at dmptool.org. DMPonline is operated by the UK’s Digital Curation Centre (DCC) at dmponline.dcc.ac.uk. Each maintains its own accounts, templates, and institutional agreements — creating a plan in one does not create or sync a plan in the other.
Primary funder coverage. DMPTool’s template library is weighted toward US federal funders (NSF, NIH, NEH, DOE, IMLS). DMPonline’s is weighted toward UK and European funders and frameworks (UKRI, Horizon Europe, Wellcome), reflecting the DCC’s UK/EU institutional base.
Institutional base. DMPTool is used predominantly by US universities and research institutions (led by the University of California system, which built and continues to steward it); DMPonline is used predominantly by UK and international institutions working with DCC-maintained templates.
What stays the same. Because both run on DMPRoadmap, the authoring experience, template-customization model, feedback/review workflow, and RDA-conformant export option are functionally similar — an institution or researcher who has used one will find the other’s interface familiar.

Neither tool should be confused with the underlying DMPRoadmap codebase itself, which is the open-source project both are built on, or with unrelated maDMP tools such as Argos (OpenAIRE), ezDMP, or the questionnaire-driven Data Stewardship Wizard, which are separate platforms entirely.

Institutional adoption

DMPTool is used under free institutional participation agreements by a large number of US universities, colleges, and research institutions — typically administered through the library or research office, which customizes templates and, in many cases, staffs the review workflow. Because participation is opt-in and the current list changes as institutions join, confirm current institutional participation directly via DMPTool’s own site rather than relying on a fixed count. A researcher does not need their institution to be a formal DMPTool partner to use the tool for standard funder templates — institutional participation mainly unlocks customized local guidance and library-mediated review, not access to the service itself.

Why this matters for DMP compliance

A plan produced in DMPTool is a document, not a certification — selecting the correct, current funder template and completing every required section is necessary but not sufficient for funder compliance. Research offices and PIs should still check the finished plan against the funder’s own current DMP/DMSP requirements (see CASRAI’s NIH vs. NSF Data Management Plans guide for how those two funders’ current formats actually differ) rather than treating template completion alone as sufficient. For plans that need to be exported and validated against a structured schema for downstream systems, verify the export against the current RDA DMP Common Standard before relying on it as machine-actionable.

References

California Digital Library, DMPTool service page (cdlib.org/services/uc3/dmptool/).
DMPTool Blog, guidance and template-update announcements (blog.dmptool.org).
DMPRoadmap open-source project documentation; UC Curation Center and Digital Curation Centre partnership materials.

Use in your systems

JATS XML <role> element

xml

<role vocab="credit"
      vocab-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/"
      vocab-term="DMPTool"
      vocab-term-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/dmptool" />

Schema.org DefinedTerm (JSON-LD)

json

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "DefinedTerm",
  "@id": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/dmptool",
  "name": "DMPTool",
  "identifier": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/dmptool",
  "description": "DMPTool is a free, web-based data management plan (DMP) authoring service operated by the California Digital Library (CDL), through its University of California Curation Center (UC3), on behalf of an international partner consortium. It runs on the open-source DMPRoadmap codebase -- the same platform underlying the Digital Curation Centre's UK-based DMPonline -- and is the DMPRoadmap deployment used predominantly by US institutions and funders. An instance qualifies as DMPTool (rather than a generic DMPRoadmap deployment or DMPonline) when it is accessed at dmptool.org, uses CDL/UC3-maintained funder templates (NSF, NIH, NEH, DOE, IMLS, and others), and is administered under an institution's DMPTool participation agreement rather than a DCC/DMPonline subscription.",
  "inDefinedTermSet": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/domain/machine-actionable-dmps#set",
  "url": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/dmptool",
  "sameAs": [],
  "license": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "publisher": {
    "@id": "https://casrai.org/#organization"
  },
  "dateModified": "2026-07-23T16:32:01",
  "inLanguage": "en"
}