In October 2018, SOLEIL Management approved the implementation of a SOLEIL data management policy for experimental data, and associated metadata, which are collected, reduced, processed and / or stored at SOLEIL (read the document on the right). Through this data management policy, SOLEIL is encouraging its Users and Scientists to produce FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) data according to principles of Open Science approach.
This data management policy is based on a model developed in the context of the European FP7 PaN-data Europe project, and on its application at other facilities dedicated to the production and use of photon or neutron beams. This model has been adapted to SOLEIL with the help of science data experts from CNRS and taking into account feedbacks from SOLEIL scientific and IT staff, as well as from representatives of SOLEIL Users solicited from the very beginning of this work.
Specifying that a Data Management Plan (DMP) is required for each proposal, this policy defines SOLEIL as the custodian of produced raw data and associated metadata. This means that SOLEIL will provide Users with automatically collected metadata for all experiments carried out on its beamlines, Users being asked to fill in the metadata they have such as sample descriptions. Metadata will be stored in a catalog, which can be accessed online to browse and download data and metadata. The experimental team will have exclusive access to data for a three-year embargo period, renewable twice for one year (or more if needed). After the embargo, the data will be released under a CC-BY license with open access to anyone registered on the SOLEIL dedicated portal. Data generated on the beamlines will automatically have a unique persistent identifier (DOI) making it possible to cite data in the publications.
In case of proprietary research conducted at SOLEIL, the raw data and the associated metadata are not covered by this data management policy. In some specific cases such as a classified experiment carried out by a ZRR laboratory (“Zone à Régime Restrictif” laboratory being subject to a strict security regime), SOLEIL and the organization carrying out the experiment may agree on a specific data management policy.
For the relevant experiment proposals, acceptance of this policy is a prerequisite for the allocation of beam time. This does not mean that all beamlines are already able to apply it: it will be implemented starting in 2018.
SOLEIL Management would like to thank all the contributors to the establishment of this data management policy, which marks an important step in the SOLEIL efforts to contribute to Open Science.
Additional resources
SOLEIL Data Management Policy (351.44 KB - pdf) (351.44 KB)