Inga: Okay. And have you started collecting data or are you in the middle of collecting? Are you done? 
Sverre: I do not collect data as such. I use open access data if I have to use data. I mainly work with simulations. We generate data. And whatever I get, it's whatever I get from other sources, like some financial reports and other types of data, it's everything open access. It’s freely available on the internet. 
Inga: So what kind of data are you generating? 
Sverre: So what I'm generating is basically data about the evolution of user basis. So the number of users of a service, but it's not even absolute numbers. It's just a fraction of the market, for example, or the emissions that the service might have. Usually I work with models of services, not with services as such. So I don't model a specific business. I usually model one type of business or in general like social media or streaming services. It's not like I'm modeling [a specific site, more generally types of sites]
Inga: Okay. Yeah, so what comes to mind when you hear the term data management plan or DMP? What do you think it means? 
Sverre: Yeah, it means to me providing a description of what type of data will you get, how you will store it, if you collect sensitive information, how do you plan to manage that and make sure that it will not be shared and making sure that you have consent to use all the data that you are using. That's more or less what I think about. 
Inga: Do you know what, if anything, do you know about any requirements to write a data management plan? 
Sverre: I had one which I answered via email actually, describing what type of data I use and how I store it. Well, I store it on my computer if I use it. And I do backups on Google Drive. That's basically what I said, if I remember correctly. 
Inga: Yeah. And what do you know about NTNU's policies for data management plans? 
Sverre: Well, I don't know if every PhD candidate must do a data management plan. I know that especially in healthcare, it's very important because you are dealing with sensitive information. But honestly, I have very little idea about that. 
Inga: Okay. Uh, do you remember where you heard from about data management plans? Was it a supervisor or Sikt, funding body, someone else? 
Sverre: It was, uh, the PhD coordinator at my, um, department. 
Inga: Yeah. Okay. Um, yeah, so I thought that I should also define, um, or describe what a DMP is defined as by NTNU. So we just know that we're talking about the same thing. So, NTNU describes a DMP as a document that describes how data in a research project should be handled from the start of the project to the end, throughout the entire process, after the end of the project. And a DMP describes what data is collected or generated. It deals with how the data will be stored, described with metadata, analyzed, and possibly shared. And a DMP is not the same thing as the notification form that you might send to Sikt, but it's a document that you can change and update as you need to. So it's basically what you said, but that's how NTNU describes it. So you said you've written one to an email to someone. Is that the only data management plan you've written, or are you going to write one for your PhD project? 
Sverre: I think it was the... The general data management plan for the whole project. And I was asked to do that by the person that informed me that I had to do that. So I just wrote it briefly describing the type of data I generate, where I store it, the type of backups I have. Specified that it isn’t anything sensitive. I don’t have information about people and all the code I use will be made available on request or stored in places like Zenodo, for example. But it's only things that I do or I generate. 
Inga: Yeah. How did you, like, what did you think about the process of writing it? Was it, how was it? 
Sverre: It was quite simple. I didn't take too much time. It would be 5-10 minutes. 
Inga: Did you get a form or a guide of how to write it? Like a question you have to answer or was it just someone said these are the things you have to do and then you wrote it basically? 
Sverre: Basically, I got an email saying, you need to provide a data management plan and this is what you have to describe. And then that's what I did. 
Inga: Yeah. Okay. That's pretty good. Did you receive any help from anyone or did you just sort of follow the instructions and that was okay? 
Sverre: I just followed the instructions and that was enough. 
Inga: Do you know anything about the library's support services for drafting a DMP?  
Sverre: No. 
Inga: Do you have any thoughts about the library, how they could reach PhDs with information about DMP tools that we can help them with? 
Sverre: I guess the library could send either emails or use Innsida [internal information channel], but I don't know. No. 
Inga: No, that's okay. 
Sverre: But maybe if I was using more sensitive data or other types of data that I have to collect or something more related to policy or, again, sensitive information, then I would probably seek help on how to do it. 
Inga: Yeah. Do you think you would like to attend a course or something on how to write a data management plan, like an instruction? 
Sverre: If I needed to use sensitive data, things like that, it would be useful. 
Inga: Yeah. What would you like for such a course to entail, to go through the policies or show you how it works? 
Sverre: I would like it to be a sort of instruction. If you use this type of data or that type of data, you need to write it in this way and you need to start in this way. And then basically tell us how to do that. 
Inga: Yeah. Okay. Do you think that writing a data management plan was a useful exercise for you? 
Sverre: I'm not sure, maybe. I would say on a scale from 1 to 10, 6. 
Inga: Why or why not do you think it was useful? Do you have any thoughts on that? 
Sverre: I would say it was kind of useful because it made me think about the type of data I generate and how I store it, which is something that I didn’t think about before, also about the importance of managing these data in a proper way so if I'm going to use other types of data in the future now I know that there are some regulations that they have to follow, and that I also have to describe everything that I do. So in that sense it was useful. 
Inga: Okay. Do you have any thoughts on how it could potentially be a more useful tool, a DMP? It's okay if you don't. 
Sverre: No, I don't. 
Inga: Okay. Um, have you actively used the data management plan in your projects? Like have you gone back and updated it if you needed to, or have you checked and see if you followed the thoughts that you said you were going to do? 
Sverre: No, no, I haven't. 
Inga: No. Okay. Um, yeah. So we talked about maybe joining a course if you had to do like another data management plan, did, Is there any other type of help that you might like, like some one-on-one guidance or a template or something else? 
Sverre: Yeah, a template would be very useful. Yeah. 
Inga: Yeah. Okay. Yeah, these interviews always go much faster than I think. Yeah, this is the last question. So is there anything else about DMPs that I haven't asked you that you would... like to say or mention? 
Sverre: I think it would be useful to inform PhD candidates in the beginning of their PhD that they have to do one, especially if they manage data on their own. I don't know if people are part of projects or something and they have to fulfill certain requirements, but if you aren't, then it's useful if somebody comes and tells you, ‘hey, you know you have to write this and start thinking about how you plan to manage your data’. Just maybe a short presentation or a short note in the PhD handbook or something like that. That would be very useful. 
Inga: Cool. Yeah. Like I said, this went much faster than I planned, but that's okay.