F1000 Research Partners With figshare to Provide Smart Ways of Accessing Data - MarketWatch

“The new figshare widget acts as a window within the body of the F1000 Research article (much like a YouTube video window), and allows users to preview accompanying data files to help them decide whether to download the data itself. The widget supports a wide range of data file formats (including video and audio files), and enables users to download many non-traditional data files in a 'friendly' format, as well as more traditional formats such as graphs and spreadsheets. This ensures that all users can have access to the data (as a zip file), even if they don't have the viewer for that file format. In addition, users can cite the data, share it on social media sites and view metrics, such as number of social media shares and cumulative use. This gives users a clear indication of how their fellow colleagues are using the data. Commenting on the partnership, Mark Hahnel, founder of figshare, said: 'The way scientific results are being recorded and analyzed is changing at a rate that has long outdated the current publishing process. By offering researchers a medium they are familiar with - say, a F1000 Research article - with data they can visualize and easily access, we'll be one step closer to a more integrated reading and research environment.' Rebecca Lawrence, Publisher, F1000 Research, adds: 'We are delighted to work with figshare on this widget, which provides a much more user-friendly way of publishing datasets within articles than the usual URL or DOI. This enables the reader to preview all the available data before deciding whether to download what can be excessively large files.'”