Institutional Figshare

Files uploaded to our institutional Figshare are stored on campus within University-managed storage.

Researchers can publish and preserve research data and digital creative works, including figures, datasets, images, and videos. Researchers upload files via the Figshare web interface, creating a research data record with descriptive metadata.

• Assigns a persistent and unique digital object identifier (DOI) to support accurate citation and data findability (refer to DOIs for research).
• Maximises discoverability and impact with records forming search results for other services e.g. data.govt.nz, Google Scholar and figshare.com.
• Tracks impact metrics, including citations, views, downloads, and media mentions.
• Enables direct download links on websites or social media

• Code
• Collection of records
• Dataset
• Dataset as a metadata-only record to support mediated access
• Figure
• Report with a DOI link to related material
• Sound recording
• Photos
• Video

Figshare provides a list of available item types.

Preparing to publish data

Before uploading research data to a repository:

• Consider Māori data sovereignty.
• Ensure any sensitive or private information has been removed from the dataset or de-identified.
• Ensure you have consent to publish the data openly.
• Establish who owns the copyright to the work.
• Ensure you have complied with licensing requirements if you have reused the work of others and are intending to share it.
• Consider how findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (FAIR) your data is. Figshare provides a comprehensive list of tips.

Upload data to institutional Figshare

1. Open the ‘Upload’ form from your Figshare account page.
2. Select category, group, and item type.
3. Fill out the required metadata. Use a title that is meaningful to others, keywords, and descriptions to enhance discoverability. The title will be used in citations, so ensure it is as specific as possible without being too long.
4. Add authors and their ORCIDs.
5. Add funding information if appropriate.
6. If you’re publishing the data at the same time as the associated publication, refer to Figshare's page, How to publish a dataset at the same time as the associated paper. You will need to connect your ORCID to your Figshare account.
7. To connect an existing publication to your Figshare record, fill in the "Resource title" and "Resource DOI" fields.
8. Select a licence so others know how they can reuse the item. Creative Commons licences are frequently used for this purpose. If you’re unsure which one to choose, use the interactive licence chooser.
9. Publish the data.

When uploading many individual files (>250) or files larger than 1GB, it might be better to use the Figshare API. For more information, contact the Centre for eResearch.

Manage private or sensitive data

Depending on the sensitivity of the data (refer to the Data classification standard) and associated ethical, legal, contractual, sovereignty, funder, or publisher constraints, it may be more appropriate to publish a descriptive or metadata-only record about the data, rather than the data itself.

A metadata-only record broadcasts the existence of the data without making the data files public. Before uploading a file, you will see a checkbox at the top of the Figshare upload form saying “Metadata record only”. If you tick this and fill in the form as normal, you will publish information about the data, but no files will be included.

Published files can also be embargoed until a specified date.

For more on publishing metadata-only or using an embargo, visit Options to publish without uploading files (Figshare).

Edit and delete data on Institutional Figshare

You can edit records after publishing them. Editing a metadata or descriptive field or the file(s) will cause the item to be versioned. People will be able to access previously published versions of the item. The base DOI remains the same and links the items together.

You can only delete private data; that which you have not made public or published. If you want to delete or unpublish a public data record, contact a University of Auckland Figshare administrator (contact details below). Unpublished records leave a 'tombstone' record within the DOI registry, Datacite.

To avoid problems, we recommend the following before publishing the item:

• Check all metadata fields, files and filenames to avoid unnecessary versioning and unpublishing
• Save and share items privately to enable review
• Contact local support staff with questions

Cite research outputs and data with DOIs

Include the DOI when citing your research output or data to support the FAIR principles for research data and increase your research impact. For example:​

Lamont, Fiona (2020). Guide for using figshare - Dance Studies. The University of Auckland. Book. https://doi.org/10.17608/k6.auckland.12284225.v2​

The DOI Citation Formatter provides a simple interface to build a full citation from a DOI in a variety of citation styles.

Use of collections and projects

Collections

A Figshare collection enables published items to be grouped and that grouping to be published with a digital object identifier (DOI). Collections can contain any combination of items that you have uploaded or that have been uploaded publicly by other people. Changes, such as adding/removing an item or editing metadata fields for the collection, will create a new version of the collection with a corresponding DOI.

Reasons to use a collection:

• Datasets and figures from different chapters in a thesis or publication
• Multiple publications or artefacts associated with a funded project for citation in a grant application
• Presentations, posters, etc, associated with an event

Projects

Institutional Figshare users get access to both individual and group projects. Members of a project can upload files, add text notes or comments, and all actions on the project are tracked. Group projects have their own storage quota and support collaboration.

The project owner can invite and remove university and external collaborators from projects. Do not publish a Figshare project – it does not get a DOI and cannot be unpublished – use it to work on items and then publish those items if appropriate.

Upload large datasets to Figshare

University of Auckland Institutional Figshare accounts are provided with 10GB of storage by default, but this can be increased by request.

To increase storage allocation:

• Log in to institutional Figshare using University credentials
• Go to the "My data" screen
• Click on "request more storage" (near the top right)

In addition to the web interface, Figshare has an API and a desktop FTP client uploader, which can be useful for uploading large files or large numbers of files. Publishing large datasets, particularly those with thousands of files, may benefit from a Research data management consultation.

Link related material with DOIs

Linking DOIs of related materials allows others to more readily access your scholarly work, increasing transparency, reproducibility and impact, and is recommended in the University's Research Data Management Policy.

Steps to link research data and the associated research output with their DOIs:

1. Use a research data repository (e.g. institutional Figshare) to create a research data record and assign or reserve a DOI.
2. Add the research data DOI to the data availability statement for the related research output.
3. Update the research data repository record by adding the DOI of the research output as related material.

In this way, the related research materials (e.g. datasets and articles) will be linked to one another using their DOIs. For example, this published dataset links to the related pre-print and GitHub page: Meerkat Behaviour Recognition Dataset

Connect your Figshare and ORCID profiles

Benefits

• Information about your data publications will flow between your Figshare and ORCID profiles to maximise accessibility and impact.
• Your ORCID is recorded on your Figshare items to uniquely identify you and prevent mistaken identity.

Steps to connect your ORCID from within your institutional Figshare profile:

1. Log in to the institutional Figshare
2. Click on your profile image, top right, and select "Profile"
3. Click "Connect" next to ORCID
4. You'll be sent to orcid.org to authenticate by signing in
5. Select which options you want to turn on (if any)

For more information, go to Figshare's How to connect to your ORCID profile.

Research Data Support Services
Email: researchdata@auckland.ac.nz

eResearch Engagement Specialist
Email: Dr Tom Saunders