DatASaclay : Research Data Management Hub at Université Paris-Saclay

The email address : donnees-recherche@universite-paris-saclay.fr, is the single point of contact through which you can reach us for any questions related to the management and openness of your research data. It is linked to the data stewards of each institution.

This address serves as a one-stop service desk, whether you have general or more specific questions, technical needs, require training, or wish to organize a seminar in your research unit. 

We organize large-scale awareness and training initiatives for laboratories and researchers on topics such as the research data lifecycle, the FAIR principles, funders' requirements, data management plans, available tools, and our institutional space on the Recherche Data Gouv repository.

These initiatives can take the form of webinars, workshops, one-on-one meetings, or specific events focused on data. Feel free to contact us so we can plan them together.

What is a DMP ?

A Data Management Plan (DMP) is a document that outlines the various stages of the data lifecycle, describing how data will be managed from creation to publication. The DMP helps researchers organize and anticipate the different steps by prompting them to ask the right questions about their data management.

It typically takes the form of a questionnaire structured around a series of key topics. The DMP addresses legal, ethical, and financial issues, as well as aspects related to responsibility and data security.

Why write a DMP ?

The DMP is a deliverable required by funding bodies (such as ANR, Horizon Europe, etc.) as part of the evaluation process for research projects. It serves as a quality assurance tool for research. It supports the FAIRification of data by facilitating their findability, accessibility, interoperability, and reusability.

The goal of the DMP is to demonstrate that data are produced and managed according to “good practices” — from collection to publication — within an ethical and legal framework aligned with the FAIR principles.

However, it is important to note that the principle “as open as possible, as closed as necessary” applies: not all data are necessarily intended for publication.

Who can help me draw up a SMP ?

DatASaclay team can help you review your Data Management Plan throughout your research project.

DatASaclay supports you throughout the course of your European or ANR-funded project :

• During the proposal phase : Assistance with drafting the preliminary Data Management Plan and the Open Science practices strategy plan.
• During the project implementation : Participation in the kick-off meeting and presentation of Open Science requirements, support for data FAIRification, guidance and review of the Data Management Plan, tailored support for Open Science practices in laboratories, and advice on data storage.
• After the project is completed : Support for data dissemination and publication, and guidance on selecting appropriate disciplinary or generalist data repositories.

A data paper is a scientific article that provides a detailed and precise description of a dataset and the context in which it was produced. It informs the scientific community of the availability of the dataset, which has been deposited in a data repository. This emerging form of publication supports open data practices.

For example, Scientific Data, an open-access journal launched in 2014, publishes only data papers—referred to by the journal as Data Descriptors. These articles describe datasets in the fields of life sciences, biomedicine, and environmental sciences, and include links to repositories where the data can be accessed. Data papers can be published either in traditional journals or in dedicated data journals.

DatASaclay supports you in properly writing your data paper and offers awareness-raising training sessions.

Depositing your data in a data repository makes it as visible, accessible, and citable as scientific publications. There are different types of data repositories : thematic, multidisciplinary, institutional, or those specific to a publisher or a research project. For example :

• DataDryad, a repository originally created for the life sciences, is now open to all disciplines and is used to host data associated with journal articles.

The choice of repository depends on the nature of the data, the research project for which it was produced, and the objectives of the depositor. Be careful—some repositories impose reuse conditions that may not be compatible with open access...

The guide Ouverture des données de recherche - Guide d'analyse du cadre juridique en France (V2 - December 2017), produced by an inter-agency working group led by INRAE and supported by the Committee for Open Science is a good approach to tackling the legal framework. This guide proposes a data communicability flowchart, which is the subject of a visualisation tool available online.  

Publicly funded research data is public data, and the principle of openness applies to it. However, legal and ethical restrictions apply, particularly to personal data, sensitive data and data protected by copyright. On the other hand, the communication of data relating to professional secrets, national defence secrets, State security and public safety is prohibited as a matter of principle.

It is therefore necessary to remain vigilant about the data disseminated in certain situations, particularly when it concerns an establishment that produces sensitive data. In addition, ‘particular care should be taken when a scientific publication is involved and the publisher requires the data to be deposited in a specific warehouse (...) decisions to open up data are taken at the level of the institution and not at the level of the agent’. (Opening up research data - Guide to analysing the legal framework in France).