At the beginning of 2024, representatives of the DMP tools ARGOS, DAMAP, and DSW, together with chairs of working and interest groups from the Research Data Alliance (RDA) initiative and collaborators, signed and published the Salzburg Manifesto on Machine-Accessible Data Management Plans (maDMPs). The document is the result of a collective commitment to strengthening a collaborative community based on reciprocity—giving, receiving, and exchanging knowledge and experience. The manifesto calls on the international scientific community to recognize the needs of the community and, through joint efforts, transform static PDF data management plans into “living,” machine-readable documents. Stakeholders are invited to join discussions and contribute to the development of shared resources to build a future where data management is not just a requirement, but a driver of discovery and collaboration. The goal is to transform data management by converting textual DMPs into a format that machines can read and process. The adoption of maDMPs provides stakeholders with a dynamic tool that simplifies data management processes and opens up possibilities for advanced automation and real-time validation.
The leaders of ARGOS, DAMAP, and DSW, as lead authors of the manifesto, have successfully integrated key features of the OSTrails project, which reflect the priorities and guidelines of the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC). The OSTrails project aims to establish the implementation of FAIR principles and machine-actionability within the European Open Science Cloud by enhancing and connecting processes and tools for planning, monitoring, and evaluating scientific research. In the planning phase, efforts are focused on improving the efficiency of DMPs and transforming them into machine-actionable resources that meet the diverse needs of national and thematic communities in the field of Research Data Management (RDM).
The full text of the Salzburg Manifesto is available in the Zenodo repository: https://zenodo.org/records/10658522
Written by: Sanja Jurković and Lovorka Čaja
