Figshare and Univ of Sheffield deliver data hub

The University of Sheffield has announced the outcomes of a joint venture with Figshare, an online digital repository for academic researchers.

The two partners have delivered an integrated hub for managing and sharing research data, named ORDA (Online Research Data). The University of Sheffield has developed this custom-branded portal on top of their Figshare portal using the Figshare API (application programming interface).

By creating a public portal and assigning digital object identifiers (DOIs), Figshare makes an organisation's research products searchable, discoverable, and citable, and their impact and attention is captured through statistical reporting and altmetrics.

The University of Sheffield’s solution enables staff, students and researchers to meet funding-body requirements for open access to data while providing a secure, long-term space for a wide range of content; all on one platform that encourages collaboration. The partners say the solution will also allow for the easy citation and re-use of their digital data by making it discoverable, citable and shareable from anywhere.

Dave Petley, vice-president for research and innovation at the University of Sheffield, commented: 'This collaboration allows us to build on our success of sharing and preserving research outputs. It provides a customisable portal for our research data and other research artefacts, enabling us to communicate our research findings  as openly and widely as possible.'

Anne Horn, director of library services and university librarian at Sheffield, added: 'University libraries have a long history of working with researchers to promote the products of their work. We are constantly developing our services and we are excited to be working in partnership with Figshare and our corporate information and computer services colleagues to provide a simple and effective means of showcasing and sharing the university’s research objects.'

Figshare CEO Mark Hahnel concluded: 'With imminent funder guidelines coming into effect, UK institutions are having to take measures to make sure their research data is stored securely and persistently, with correct metadata and made freely accessible on the Internet.

'This cutting-edge integrated solution meets the key requirements set out by The University of Sheffield and the solution will support the storage of primary data generated during original research projects, alongside derived and summarised data used to support publications.'