SelectedWorks

For sharing scholarship and creative outputs, some platforms are better suited due to their broader scope, support for different types of content, and integration with academic and creative workflows. Here are some alternative platforms you can consider for uploading materials to showcase your scholarly work.

Recommendations Based on Content Types

For a mix of scholarly and creative outputs, Figshare and Zenodo stand out as the most versatile options, providing robust features for discoverability and citation of non-traditional scholarly work. 

• Scholarship (e.g., articles, papers): Figshare, Zenodo, ResearchGate, STARS
• Creative Outputs (e.g., artwork, performances): Figshare, Zenodo, OSF, STARS
• Multimedia (e.g., video, audio): Figshare, Zenodo, OSF, STARS
• Code/Software (as part of creative or scholarly work): Zenodo (with GitHub), Figshare

See the Generalist Repository Comparison Chart for a tool researchers can use to make decisions about selecting a general repository.

STARS is UCF's institutional repository that provides open access to the university’s scholarly and creative works submitted by faculty, staff, students and affiliates of UCF wishing to share their work with a worldwide audience. 

• Best for: STARS is best for UCF faculty, staff, students, and affiliates interested in sharing a wide range of scholarship, creative works, and institutional outputs produced during their time at the university.
• Features: STARS offers long-term storage, open access to research outputs, and the ability to upload a variety of content types including creative works and faculty publications.
• Advantages: STARS enhances the visibility of UCF research by providing open access and long-term storage of academic outputs, making them discoverable to a global audience. STARS supports a wide range of content types, from articles and theses to artwork and performances. STARS caters to UCF’s academic and creative community, providing broad access while maintaining the institution’s branding.
• Things to consider: Researchers should be aware that while STARS provides a platform for sharing, they must ensure compliance with copyright and digital accessibility policies and verify that their content is suitable for open access.

Figshare is a platform for researchers to share, publish, and discover a wide range of research outputs. 

• Best for: Figshare is best for researchers looking to share a diverse range of research outputs, including articles, datasets, figures, media, posters, presentations, and multimedia files, in an open-access format.
• Features: Figshare offers data storage, DOI assignment, metadata tagging, open access sharing, and the ability to upload a variety of file types including datasets, images, and videos.
• Advantages: Figshare integrates well with other services, supports open access, and allows users to upload and share diverse research outputs, including traditional scholarly works and creative content, all of which receive DOIs to enhance visibility, citation, and discoverability across various platforms.
• Things to consider: Researchers should be mindful that while Figshare supports various file types, there are storage limits based on account type, and uploaded content must comply with copyright and licensing requirements.

Zenodo is a general-purpose open-access repository for sharing all types of research outputs, including publications, datasets, and software. 

• Best for: Zenodo is best for researchers who want to share and preserve a wide array of research outputs, including publications, datasets, scholarly outputs, creative works, code, and software, in an open-access environment.
• Features: Zenodo offers researchers the ability to upload datasets, articles, and other digital research materials with DOI assignment, support for multiple file types, integration with GitHub, and open access sharing.
• Advantages: Zenodo, hosted by CERN, is a well-rounded platform that ensures long-term preservation, provides easy citation with DOIs, supports diverse research outputs including multimedia content, integrates with GitHub to archive code repositories, and promotes open science by allowing free access to uploaded content, making it discoverable and citable.
• Things to consider: Researchers should be aware that Zenodo has file size limits and storage quotas per account type, and they must ensure that their content complies with copyright and licensing regulations.

The Open Science Framework (OSF) is a platform for managing, sharing, and collaborating on research projects across all disciplines. 

• Best for: OSF is best for researchers seeking a comprehensive platform to manage scholarly outputs, share creative research, and collaborate on projects across various disciplines.
• Features: OSF offers project management tools, file storage, version control, collaboration capabilities, and integrations with external services.
• Advantages: OSF supports a broad range of file types allowing users to share scholarly and creative outputs while also managing collaborative projects while enhancing research transparency, facilitating collaboration, enabling reproducibility, and allowing for seamless integration of research workflows and outputs.
• Things to consider: Researchers should be aware that while OSF allows for flexibility and collaboration, they need to manage privacy settings carefully, as project visibility can be public or restricted based on user preferences.