What does the NIH Figshare Instance mean for Librarians?

As part of the NIH Strategic Plan for Data Science (https://datascience.nih.gov/strategicplan), the NIH is committed to making datasets resulting from NIH investigator publications more accessible. Researchers sometimes find themselves with a requirement to share data but cannot identify a specific repository to use. When researchers don’t have a subject specific repository relevant to their work, a generalist repository can be an appropriate place to store their data. The NIH Figshare instance is one example of a generalist repository.

Data submitted to the NIH Figshare instance will be reviewed for completeness and to ensure there is no personally identifiable information in the data and metadata prior to being published and made discoverable. Review will also ensure the data and metadata are findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable – or aligned with the FAIR principles (https://www.go-fair.org/fair-principles/).

A webinar is scheduled to provide an overview of the pilot NIH Figshare instance and help inform librarians on ways to guide researchers who want to use the NIH Figshare instance. We will review the published NIH Figshare Instance - Info For Librarians toolkit as well as some existing examples of datasets that are live on the NIH Figshare instance. As part of the webinar, there will be a dedicated time for discussion to allow for questions and conversation.