Figshare Support

University of Adelaide figshare is indexed by Google and is searchable via figshare.com. Information on University of Adelaide datasets will also be searchable on Research Data Australia.  

You can increase the discoverability of your research by ensuring that your keywords are relevant and specific to your topic, and that you have fully described your work by filling in as many of the fields as possible. 

All published files on University of Adelaide figshare are publicly accessible online and reusable by others under a Creative Commons or other licence.

Only you can view your private research files before you publish. They are not visible or accessible by anyone else. However, if you are part of a University of Adelaide figshare project, you can elect to allow project team members to view and download your unpublished research files. This is a feature designed to encourage collaboration. 

GitHub is a widely used version control repository primarily for code. Linking your figshare and GitHub accounts allows you to make public the code associated with a research output and make clear which version of the code you used. 

On the My data page, next to the ‘+Create a new item’ button is the Octocat GitHub icon. Clicking on the icon takes you to a page that will state you have no connected GitHub accounts. 

Click the ‘Connect’ button. You will be prompted to login to GitHub. 

Once logged in, the next page asks you to click on the ‘Authorize application’ button, which allows your figshare account to connect to your GitHub account. This will take you back to figshare and display your GitHub repositories. 

To import, select the repositories then click ‘Import selected repos.’ You will then have the option of adding further information or closing the item. 

Regardless of which method you choose, the published item will clearly state that an embargo currently applies and provide the date the embargo ends. 

An embargo allows you to provide a publisher with a DOI for the data to be made available without revealing any of your work until you are ready. Embargo dates can be edited as long as the item has not been published. 

When you login to figshare for the first time, complete My Profile and link your ORCID. Login to ORCID and activate the DataCite link. This will allow your records for datasets and NTROs to be added automatically to your ORCID record. 

For more help, see the Sync your ORCiD quick reference guide.

To link your datasets to your publication, you need to reserve a DOI for the dataset which then goes in the publication. Next, put the journal article’s DOI or URL in the Related Materials field in figshare.  

The Licence dropdown will be prepopulated with the CC BY 4.0 licence. The University’s Research Data and Primary Materials Policy specifies that the Creative Commons – Attribution (CC-BY) licence is to be used except where this is not appropriate. This could include:  

The University has a list of questions to consider before publishing data to assist you. If you are unsure about which licence to use, the ARDC’s Research Data Rights Management Guide may help or please contact Research Support at figshare@adelaide.edu.au  

In cases where Restricted Access is appropriate, you can select the Set as metadata record radio button when creating a record in figshare. This will allow you to create a record which describes your data but does not require you to upload the associated data files.   

Metadata only records describing Class 3 and 4 data, as described in the University’s Information Classification and Protection Guidelines, may be made available using figshare. The data itself should not be uploaded to figshare however and must instead be stored in a University managed storage solution. For assistance with Class 3 and 4 data storage, please see Storage for Staff.