Applying open science to data from projects supported by national calls with societal impact – SODIO

The project is structured around four work packages. WP1 will manage, coordinate and lead the SODIO project. WP2 will analyze the practices of the communities involved in LEFE-CYBER projects. This analysis will be based mainly on a questionnaire sent to project leaders. WP3 will focus on identifying community needs and constraints. Researchers who have been involved in LEFE-CYVER projects will be interviewed by videoconference, or on site in the case of major laboratories. WP4 will draw on WP2 & 3 to propose appropriate services. WP4 aims to support project leaders in their data management and open science practices. A guide will be drawn up to help project promoters become aware of the data life cycle, which should be taken into account as soon as the project is submitted. The different possibilities for data banking will be detailed, with decision trees depending on the nature of the data, in particular for data acquired through experimentation or laboratory analysis after field campaigns. The ultimate aim will be to link all the different databases to which the data will be linked, such as the oceanography campaign database, for example.

The collected data belongs to two categories: (i) qualitative survey data obtained through a questionnaire and supplemented by face-to-face or video conference interviews, and (ii) quantitative data obtained through bibliographic research.
Each interview will be transcribed onto a summary sheet that highlights key words associated with barriers to banking and the need for assistance.
The quantitative data will consist of a compilation of links to articles and banked data from each project. This compilation will be published as a CSV table on the project webpage.

By proposing a protocol and guidelines for opening up data produced by a project funded by a CNRS call, SODIO will improve knowledge of and practices for open science within marine scientific communities.
The recommendations will be directly transposable to any project.

in progress

For several years now, research funding organisms have been encouraging scientific communities to practise open science, i.e. the free dissemination of the results, methods and products of scientific research. These injunctions complement earlier directives on data EU (INSPIRE Directive). However, these practices are not yet systematic, and much data still remains on the computers of scientific colleagues, sometimes without being backed up to a hard drive or local network. This is very damaging in the context of global change, which has huge impacts on the environment, and in particular on the health of the oceans. The SODIO project aims to gain a better understanding of the current state of practice, based on the example of research supported by the LEFE call for projects (AAP) of the CNRS Terre et Univers. In particular, it will focus on LEFE CYBER Action projects that can benefit from the support of the LEFE CYBER database. The general objective of the LEFE CYBER action is to improve our understanding of biogeochemical cycles and the functioning of marine ecosystems in order to understand their past and future evolution. Most of the projects funded by LEFE CYBER are oceanographic campaigns, which allow the acquisition of unique and costly data, as they require access to remote sites and numerous technical resources. It is therefore essential to open up these marine datasets. A first objective of the SODIO project will be to evaluate the openness of data generated by LEFE CYBER projects. The strategy will be to compare the practices of two groups of projects, those that have used the LEFE CYBER database and those that have not. The study will focus on the dissemination of results and products of all projects accepted over the last 10 years. This corresponds to a total of 121 projects. A first analysis will consist of an evaluation of the available published data and methods. At the same time, a questionnaire will be sent to the project leaders to ask them about their practices and needs in terms of banking. A comparison of the two panels should provide a clearer picture of the barriers to the practice of open science. This evaluation will feed into the second objective of the SODIO project, which is to support the LEFE CYBER project PIs in opening up their data. This will involve the production of tutorials, guides and online tools, with the support of IR Data Terra's ODATIS Ocean Data Pole, to assist colleagues involved in current and future projects. Using the LEFE programme as an example, the project aims to proagate this good practice throughout the French scientific community.