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Figshare lets researches publish figures and data for long-term archival and public access. I just found out about it and find the idea sympathetic. See for example their F.A.Q..

What risks are involved with publishing my data and figures at figshare? What are the disadvantages? Did anyone actively decide against doing so, and if so, why?

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Well, some journals have a "no prior publication" rule in place. These rules often preclude publishing anything that has already appeared in online databases that are freely accessible, so publishing figures in advance of a publication in a medium like this could be construed as violating such a policy. Since anything publicly posted gets published under a CC-BY license, so this almost assuredly counts with those journals as "prior publication."

In addition, anything that could be considered "confidential" or "proprietary" information definitely should not be posted on such a site until you have secured the necessary permissions from project partners and affiliates. That would also apply to "private" hosting of the figures.

Your own university or research institution may have policies that have some bearing on the ability to use such sites, so check with them as well. Better safe than sorry.

(Note: Those cautions aside, I do think it's a clever idea, and I hope it can catch on!)

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    With regards to prior publishing, F1000 research has looked into this (f1000research.com/about/?utm_source=jrnlbtn) in some detail and found the following journals are okay with it: BMC journals BMJ Group journals Elsevier journals IOS Press journals The Lancet journals Nature-titled journals PLoS journals RSC journals SAGE journals Adv Clin Neurosci Rehabil Bioinformatics Cardiovasc Ther Ecol Lett Eur J Neurosci Int J Eat Disord Int J Obstet Anesth J Clin Invest J Neurol J Neurosci J Pain J Plant Ecol Neurourol Urodyn New Engl J Med Proc Natl Acad Sci USA PROTEOMICS J Science Commented Oct 25, 2012 at 13:08
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Figshare is very, very dangerous. Their policy allows them to remove your data with no recourse. This is very important because they can remove your DOI along with your paper and then allow another researcher to take advantage of that event and steal your proof of copywrite date. That means you can lose your copywrite protection. Figshare also does not respond to request for proof of why they removed your papers. For example they have removed over 100 of my scientific papers regardless of the fact that all of the papers were written entirely by their rules. So don't use Figshare. There are reputable companies that do a better job.

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    Are there actually any services that don't claim the right to remove one's uploads though? Even Zenodo's Terms of Use state that "CERN reserves the right, without notice, at its sole discretion and without liability, (i) to alter, delete or block access to content that it deems to be inappropriate or insufficiently protected, and (ii) to restrict or remove User access where it considers that use of Zenodo interferes with its operations or violates these Terms of Use or applicable laws.". Commented Aug 29 at 18:50
  • Figshare and Zenodo make the promise that their services are a safe repository for your scientific work. That is the whole reason you "spend money" placing your scientific papers in their repository. And they benefit from your scientific work. Figshare, Zenodo and DataCite claim that your work is safe and that it will never be deleted. That is a lie. However, what they do is the exact opposite of what they imply. They in fact steal your work by removing your papers and either stealing them or destroying them. They do not give them back. I recently filed a patent that will end that problem. Commented Aug 31 at 11:28
  • Here to reinforce what @RcCrawford is saying. PLEASE BE CAUTIOUS USING OUR TRUSTING FIGSHARE FOR ANYTHING SERIOUS OR LONG-TERM. I'm a regular and compliant user of their platform that suddenly found myself at a loss too; close to 80+ scientific preprints and online resources suddenly got deleted over shady reasons! So, please, academicians especially, DON'T TRUST Figshare. Commented Nov 27 at 22:15
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Here to reinforce what @RcCrawford is saying. PLEASE BE CAUTIOUS USING OR TRUSTING FIGSHARE FOR ANYTHING SERIOUS OR LONG-TERM. I'm a regular and compliant user of their platform. I suddenly found myself at a loss, too; close to 80+ scientific preprints and online resources were suddenly deleted for shady reasons! I went ahead to appeal, but notice that out of the works hosted since about 2020, just like 2 articles remained!!

REF: https://figshare.com/authors/Joseph_Willrich_Lutalo/8859641

That's so rude, so unethical on their part. Most of such deleted works had DOIs! Suddenly deleting such works out of nowhere, and without prior warning to the authors, is such a dangerous thing to do.

So, please, academicians especially, DON'T TRUST Figshare.

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