Empower Your Research with Open Data - #RKEFest23

At this year’s Festival of Research and Knowledge Exchange, we’re excited to welcome Figshare founder and CEO Mark Hahnel to discuss the transformative power of open data in research communication. Figshare provides Leeds Beckett’s Thesis and Research Data Repository, enabling anyone to read and reuse eTheses and research data, whilst protecting both under a Creative Commons licence. This is the true magic of Open Science, where both researchers and the public can benefit from accessible, transparent, and responsible research.

Here at Leeds Beckett, the Research Services team in Library and Student Services can support you with all aspects of research data management. Last year, I conducted research on our researchers’ knowledge and support needs regarding Open Data. Key findings included:

• 67% of researchers knew what Open Data was
• 57% of researchers hadn’t used Open Data for their own research
• Researchers stated they needed further guidance and support including: ‘Practical guidance on how to make data open’, ‘A named person/service to go to for support’ and ’Training and Events’

In response to the research findings we:

• Created a dedicated email address for research data queries
• Are developing our research data webpages to increase guidance including practical guides and short videos on using Symplectic and Figshare to make your data open
• Will be creating more granular training sessions on different aspects of research data management

We’re so excited about the possibilities of Open Data and are looking forward to helping our community make the most of our Figshare repository.

As part of the Festival of Research and Knowledge Exchange, we will welcome Mark Hahnel, CEO of Figshare, to present 'Data: the power of sharing your data using FAIR principles', taking place in the Rose Bowl Lecture Theatre C on Tuesday 21 November, 14:00 - 15:30.

As Mark says, "With all the demands put on researchers these days, I'm excited to come and talk to researchers about how their careers can benefit by publishing their data. We have a decade worth of data, some helpful tips and tricks and the University supporting the researchers with investment in a data and thesis repository.

“I'll talk through some of the trends in open practices, global and UK policy and help researchers get credit for all of their research."

You can also read the brand new State of Open Data 2023 report, from Figshare, Digital Science and Springer Nature, released today.