Figshare

Figshare
Name	Figshare
Founded	2011
Founders	Mark Hahnel
Headquarters	London
Type	Repository, Publishing Platform
Website	figshare

Figshare is a web-based repository and online platform for storing, sharing, and citing research outputs including datasets, figures, posters, preprints, and software. Launched in 2011, it aimed to address reproducibility and open access by enabling researchers to make materials discoverable and citable alongside publications from organizations such as Nature (journal), PLOS, Wellcome Trust, European Commission, and MacArthur Foundation. Figshare integrates with services and institutions like ORCID, Crossref, DataCite, Zenodo, and Dryad to support persistent identifiers and metadata standards used across scholarly communications and initiatives championed by entities like Research Councils UK and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

History

Figshare was founded by Mark Hahnel in 2011 amid debates involving stakeholders including Nature (journal), PLOS, Wellcome Trust, European Commission, and advocates from OpenAIRE and SPARC (organization) over access to underlying research outputs. Early development responded to calls from prominent projects and figures linked to reproducibility crises publicized by commentators connected to Retraction Watch and analyses by scholars at institutions such as Harvard University, Stanford University, and the University of Cambridge. Figshare’s growth paralleled the rise of initiatives led by Crossref and DataCite to formalize citation of non-traditional outputs and matched broader open science movements spearheaded by organizations like RIKEN, Max Planck Society, and Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Services and Features

Figshare provides hosted repositories, DOI minting through partners such as DataCite, metadata management aligned with schemas promoted by National Information Standards Organization, and integration with researcher identifiers like ORCID. The platform supports upload and display of file types favored by users from MIT, University of Oxford, University of California, Berkeley, Imperial College London, and research consortia such as CERN. Features include granular access controls used by institutions including University College London, versioning workflows similar to those advocated by GitHub, and metrics dashboards reflecting altmetrics approaches championed by Altmetric and citation-tracking models used by Clarivate. Figshare also offers institutional hubs for libraries and data services in universities such as Yale University and University of Toronto.

Data Policies and Licensing

Figshare supports licensing frameworks widely used in scholarly communication including licenses from Creative Commons, alongside options for embargoes and restricted access compatible with mandates issued by funders such as Wellcome Trust, NIH, European Research Council, and UK Research and Innovation. The platform’s policy tools accommodate compliance with data-sharing requirements tied to funding from organizations like Horizon 2020, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and national agencies such as National Science Foundation and Medical Research Council (United Kingdom). Figshare metadata supports standards and best practices promoted by Data Documentation Initiative and stewardship principles advocated by FAIRsharing and the GO FAIR initiative.

Adoption and Use in Research

Adoption of Figshare has been driven by universities, publishers, and research institutes including Elsevier, Springer Nature, PLOS, Wellcome Trust, and academic libraries at Columbia University, University of Melbourne, and University of Edinburgh. Researchers in fields represented by departments at Johns Hopkins University, ETH Zurich, Princeton University, and University of Chicago use Figshare to deposit supplementary materials for journals such as Nature Communications, PLOS ONE, Scientific Reports, and domain-specific venues like arXiv. Use cases span disciplines intersecting with projects at CERN, NASA, European Molecular Biology Laboratory, and clinical research networks funded by Wellcome Trust and NIHR. The platform’s DOIs and metadata facilitate citation practices endorsed by committees including Committee on Publication Ethics and standards bodies like Committee on Data (CODATA).

Technical Infrastructure

Figshare’s infrastructure leverages cloud hosting and persistent identifier services integrated with DataCite and interoperability protocols promoted by Digital Object Identifier governance and Open Archives Initiative. The platform supports metadata harvesting via protocols aligned with OAI-PMH practices and integrates analytics comparable to systems developed by Altmetric, Crossref Event Data, and indexing services from Google Scholar and Scopus (Elsevier). Backend components reflect engineering practices used at technology organizations such as Amazon Web Services users, containerization trends popularized by Docker, and continuous integration patterns common at GitLab. Storage and redundancy strategies mirror approaches used by infrastructure projects at CERN and national data centers collaborating with European Open Science Cloud stakeholders.

Governance and Funding

Figshare’s governance and funding have involved partnerships and contracts with academic institutions, commercial publishers, and funders including Digital Science, Leiden University, Jisc, Wellcome Trust, European Commission, and private investors engaged with scholarly infrastructure ventures linked to Knowledge Unlatched and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Oversight mechanisms reflect compliance expectations similar to those set by UK Research and Innovation and reporting practices common to nonprofit initiatives supported by organizations such as Gates Foundation. Strategic decisions have been influenced by collaborations with standards bodies like DataCite and consortia such as OpenAIRE that shape repository interoperability and sustainability planning.

Category:Academic publishing Category:Open science