“The data paper (or ‘data article’) is one of the still emerging forms of academic publications. Like any scientific paper, it is peer-reviewed and must meet well-defined requirements. Its purpose is to describe a dataset in detail, emphasizing the method of data construction and their potential for reuse. Unlike a traditional scientific paper, the data paper does not provide research results and generally does not contain any discussion or conclusion. On the other hand, it facilitates the reproducibility and reuse by making the data intelligible and citable. Moreover it offers the opportunity to value the work of all actors who have contributed to their production.”^[1]Extract from the guide ‘Create a draft data paper in a few clicks’ available on the Recherche Data Gouv website: https://recherche.data.gouv.fr/fr/actualite/creez-une-ebauche-de-data-paper-en-quelques-clics

The Recherche Data Gouv team has now published the results of its survey of scientists’ data paper publishing practices. The aim of the survey carried out between September and November 2023 was to gather information on data paper publication practices. The questionnaire particularly asked about researchers’ use of the Create a Data Paper tool available from the Recherche Data Gouv repository (knowledge of and possible feedback on the tool). The survey also aimed to collect suggestions for enhancing the tool.

The main results obtained from the 226 responses – mainly from researchers, academics, professors and lecturers, with an over-representation (40%) of INRAE respondents – are as follows: 

• Data papers are still not widely used: just 31% of our respondents have already published data papers with 15.5% intending to do so;
• The main journal publishers use is Data in Brief which is also INRAE researchers’ preferred journal for publishing data papers;
• Currently, there is no dominant trend for the publication period for scientific articles associated with data papers – before, after or in parallel with their publication;
• Among the main difficulties cited by respondents that could explain this “low level of use” of data papers are documenting associated data, the complexity of writing and the cost of publication;
• The Data Paper Creation tool remains little known and little used. This tool uses the DOI of a dataset deposited in the Recherche Data Gouv repository to generate a draft data paper based on the ‘Recherche Data Gouv’ or ‘Data in Brief’ models. 

The Recherche Data Gouv team’s conclusions to the report presenting the survey results of the survey include recommendations to implement a communication plan to inform the scientific community more effectively about the Creation of a Data Paper tool and to enrich this tool with more data paper models. A short guide to creating a draft data paper in a few clicks has therefore been published. 

Find out more (in French)

• The report presenting all these results can be accessed on HAL. Mouhamed Gassama, Dimitri Szabo, Cathy Tang, Sonia Bravo. Analyse de l’enquête sur les pratiques des scientifiques en matière de publication de data paper. INRAE. 2024, 28 p. ⟨hal-04690792⟩, DOI : 10.17180/vrh7-r606

• The dataset containing the results can be accessed on the Recherche Data Gouv repository. Mouhamed Gassama, Cathy Tang, Dimitri Szabo. Data from the survey on scientists’ data paper publication practices. Recherche Data Gouv. 2024, V1. https://doi.org/10.57745/TODBTM

• The monitoring article published by the Institut Pasteur gives a detailed overview of the survey results: https://openscience.pasteur.fr/2024/10/04/resultats-de-lenquete-sur-les-pratiques-des-scientifiques-en-matiere-de-publication-de-data-papers-une-forme-de-publication-encore-peu-utilisee/