How to use Figshare for thesis and dissertation outputs

Figshare is a good place to share outputs from thesis or dissertation work, including datasets, presentations, posters, and other supplementary material. This help article offers suggestions to help you share these outputs appropriately.

What can you share?

It is best practice to share any research outputs that might help someone interpret, reproduce, or replicate your research. Please see the sections in this guide on how to add metadata and follow best practices to maximise appropriate sharing. In general, you should ‘own’ the files, files should be in open formats when possible, you should include a README file, and you should fill out the metadata fields as completely as possible.

Your thesis or dissertation is likely already in a digital format and available in a repository. Check with your university to find out if you can put a copy in Figshare. If a digital copy is already available with a persistent identifier (like a handle or DOI), you should link your Figshare records to that digital copy using the Related materials field.

Comply with your funder’s data sharing requirments

‍You may be seeking or already have grant funding and you should look at the guidelines from your funder on data sharing. See the sections in this guide on writing data management plans as well as sharing outputs funded by NSF and NIH. 

Organizing outputs

You probably have a variety of outputs to share. Think carefully about how they might be reused in the future and how others will need to cite your outputs. In some cases, it makes sense to put many files into one Figshare item so that they can be cited together as in this example. Most of the time, one has multiple files that may need to be cited individually, like a dataset, a poster, and code. In this case it may make sense to put individual files in individual items like this. Or perhaps group the files in items (this is part of a large set of items).

Importantly, if you put files into individual items, the best practice is to link those files together through the metadata- use the Related materials field to do this. The Figshare platform also provides Collections as another way to relate items to each other. The individual item linked above is part of a Collection. The example with files grouped in many items is also part of a Collection. All of the items in those Collections can be cited using one DOI, or they can be cited individually. 

Pro Tip: It’s good practice to put the Collection DOI in the Related materials field for each member item so that a user can find your Collection from each item.

For more on Collections, please see the section in this guide on how to use Collections. 

Ultimately, a Collection is a great way for graduate students to showcase everything accomplished and it provides a way to easily cite or refer to those outputs in a CV or presentation.