Accessibility statement

The Royal Society Conditions of Award

"The Society supports science as an open enterprise and is committed to ensuring that data outputs from research supported by the Society are made publically available in a managed and responsible manner, with as few restrictions as possible."

The Royal Society published its report Science as an Open Enterprise in 2012 and continues to be at the forefront in promoting the benefits of open data.

A summary of the main Royal Society requirements for:

Data management and sharing plans

Applicants who expect to produce data that is of significant value to the research community are required to submit an outline data management and sharing plan at the grant application stage for most Royal Society schemes. 

The Society does not have a set format for plans but states that "information submitted in plans should focus specifically on how the data outputs will be managed and shared, detailing the repositories where data will be deposited."

Guidance from The Society:

  • 'Outline of Data Management and Data Sharing Plan' (page 7) of the Royal Society Research Grants Scheme [PDF] provides questions that a plan should address (200 words maximum, for the majority of the schemes).
  • Check each scheme's guidance notes for information on the expected content of plans.

Help with costs

The costs of data management, infrastructure or sharing are not explicitly addressed. 

"For all its science journals, the Society will cover the cost of depositing data with Dryad."

Data deposit and retention

The Society requires that "Data outputs should be deposited in an appropriate, recognised, publically available repository, so that others can verify and build upon the data, which is of public interest." 

A minimum retention period is not specified.

Data access and sharing

The adoption of best practice for data sharing is expected, "submitting generated datasets to an appropriate and openly available repository, ensuring that the data is accessible, assessable, useable and traceable." 

To ensure data will benefit the wider research community and to maximise public benefit, there is an expectation that where appropriate, data will be made "openly available within a reasonable timeframe with as few restrictions as possible."

Data access statements

Data access statements can be used to fulfill the requirement for data to be "traceable". See our guidance on Data access statements.

Further sources of help

Write an outline data management and sharing plan for the Royal Society using DMPonline

DMPonline, a web-based tool provided by the Digital Curation Centre (DCC), can help you create an effective plan that meets the requirements set by the Royal Society.

To get started, first create an account, then sign in with your institutional credentials. After signing in, click on ‘Create a plan’ and select ‘The Royal Society’ when asked for your funder. For additional guidance in completing your DMP, choose to see guidance from the University of York and from the DCC in the template provided.