This dataset compiles a list of universities classified as Doctoral Universities with very high research activity (R1) by the Carnegie Commission for Higher Education as well as their unique identifier. The dataset also lists whether or not an institutional research data policy exists, the internal classification number used by the researchers, the title of the policy, a link to the policy, comments from the researchers, and who located the policy. The policies included in this dataset are policies that refer to the management and retention of research data, and (a) refer exclusively to research data (b) the policy affects all types of research data generated in an institution (c) the policy is an official, university wide policy.