Research Data Management Plan (DMP) for EpiDentLatvia: Mapping the Epidemiological Profile of Oral Health in Latvian Children and Adolescents

The Data Management Plan (DMP) for the EpiDentLatvia project describe the plan for managing, storing, sharing, and preserving data generated during the research. EpiDentLatvia targets the urgent oral health challenge in Latvia, where nearly all 12-year-olds are affected by dental caries. The project aims to generate evidence using traditional statistics and machine learning to identify risk factors, predict dental service needs and map inequalities in access. By analysing national and research datasets, it will inform policies that support prevention-focused, equitable dental care in line with WHO and UN health goals. The primary objectives of this DMP are: Data Collection and Standardisation: Establishing protocols for collecting data on various risk factors affecting dental health, accessibility of dental services, and the impacts of treatment disruptions, while ensuring standardisation across datasets for meaningful analyses. Data Sharing and Open Science Commitment: The project emphasizes transparency and reproducibility by sharing cleaned and anonymized datasets in FAIR-compliant repositories. This commitment encourages public participation and collaboration with policymakers, aiming to democratize research tools. Data Analysis and Security: Safeguarding the integrity and confidentiality of research data while implementing robust statistical techniques and machine learning methods for analysis, to identify trends, disparities, and predictive factors influencing oral health outcomes. Long-term Preservation: Ensuring that all datasets can be accessed post-project completion for future research, policy formulation, and ongoing public health initiatives. This aligns with the overall goal of fostering a collaborative environment in oral health research.