Wiley/Figshare partnership 'to support data sharing'

John Wiley & Sons has announced a partnership with the London-based data repository organisation Figshare.

Wiley has embarked on the partnership to integrate data sharing within existing journal workflows and article publication, in an effort to support authors who wish to openly share their data.

The service is being piloted with a number of titles and will be rolled out over the next few months along with new data citation and data sharing policies. Wiley says this will ensure that more data is accessible, sharable and reproducible under a creative commons license from articles on Wiley Online Library without any cost to the author or readers.

Wiley previously completed an extensive study of the changing needs of academics as the research process evolves with new technologies. With the convergence of research and technology, an important area that has emerged is the need to make data both human and machine readable, the company says. It it hoped that this flexibility of data will allow ease of use for academic researchers.

'Wiley’s forward thinking in researching this space intensively before putting a strong focus on data demonstrates the changing nature of academia and Wiley’s commitment to provide world class services to their authors,' said Mark Hahnel, CEO of Figshare. 'As the scholarly credit system evolves, we want to ensure that all academics can get the credit they deserve for all of their work. This partnership means that authors publishing with Wiley will have that benefit.'

'We’re constantly looking to provide the most innovative and rewarding publishing experience for our authors,' added Liz Ferguson, VP for editorial development at Wiley. “'under mandates are adding lots of extra requirements that our authors must comply with. Our author services are unmatched and working with Figshare further enhances those services for academic researchers publishing in Wiley journals.'