Open Science Framework (OSF)

What is the Open Science Framework?

The Open Science Framework (OSF) is an open source cloud-based project management platform. It is designed to help teams collaborate in one centralized location; it is also used to share part or all of a research project or its outputs, such as preprints, open access articles, and data. Teams can connect third-party services that they already use (such as GitHub, Google Drive, and Amazon Web Services) directly to the OSF workspace. OSF provides version control, persistent URLs, and DOI registration. Cross-institutional collaboration is easy, as is controlling who has access to projects. OSF also allows researchers to connect to research services, like GitHub.

Creating an Account

OSF offers three different options for logging in: with an institutional account, with your ORCID, or with an OSF account using an email address.

Setting up a Project

With OSF, you can create project pages to store your data, collaborate with peers, and keep track of all your materials. There is no limit to the number of projects or components you can create.

• Create a new project- create a project for an experiment, lab group, paper, or presentation. A project can be anything with files, collaborators, documentation, or data.
• Add Contributors- add collaborators, peers, or reviewers to your project. You can customize the permissions for each contributor for each project or component.
• Licensing- add a license for your project or data by selecting one of the commonly used licenses or upload your own. A license informs others of how they can copy, distribute, or reuse parts of your project.
• Creating a project from a template- by using a template, you can copy the structure of another project. This can be one of your projects or a project of another OSF user. The template will copy the structure but not the content.

Connecting to Other Services

OSF can connect to 11 cloud storage services like Google Drive, GitHub, Dropbox and more. By connecting to these outside services, users can access files that are housed in these services via OSF. Each add-on has a different level of interaction that can be done through OSF and will have different sets of permissions. Some services have read-only access and need to be edited through the storage service, while others allow you to edit the files through OSF and automatically update in the service. Each add-on service also has a different file size limit.

OSF can also connect to citation management services like Mendeley and Zotero. These allow you to keep track of the references used in your project and will appear on the project overview page.

OSF Storage

In addition to add-on services, OSF provides storage space for files. Beginning November 3, 2020, OSF will limit the storage capacity of private projects to 5 GB per project, and public projects to 50 GB per project. Data stored in add-on services does not count toward these limits. Individual files uploaded to OSF Storage must be 5GB or less. For more information on OSF storage caps, take a look at OSF's storage help guides and FAQs.

Global OSF storage location options:

• United States
• Canada- Montréal
• Germany- Frankfurt
• Australia- Sydney

Sharing a Project

There are several ways to publicly share your OSF project:

• Making the project public- Projects and components are private by default, but you can make the whole or just part of the project public.
• Creating a DOI- After making the project public, you can generate a DOI. Each OSF project and component also comes with a unique persistent URL.
• Registering the project- by registering your project, you create a frozen, time-stamped copy. Registrations can be made public immediately or embargoed for up to 4 years.

OSF Best Practices

OSF provides guides on some of the best practices for using OSF in your research workflow. Topics include:

• File Management- this includes file naming and organizing files.
• Version Control- good version control can lead to more efficient collaboration and increased accuracy of research results. OSF has a built-in version control for all files stored in your project.
• Handling Data- best data practices include how to make a data dictionary, sharing research outputs, and sharing data.

Research Data Management

The Texas Tech Libraries also has guides on research data management to help you with your research. Data Management Guide- a guide to resources related to the many aspects of research data management. Data management encompasses the processes surrounding collecting, organizing, describing, sharing, and preserving data.

Organization

Why should you organize your data?

The organizational structure of your data can help you easily locate files when revisiting a past project and can help secondary users find, identify, select, and obtain the data they require.

How do you organize your data?

For best results, data structure should be fully modeled top-to-bottom/beginning-to-end in the planning phase of a project.

You'll want to devise ways to express the following:

• The context of data collection: project history, aim, objectives, and hypothesis
• Data collection methods: sampling, data collection process, instruments used, hardware and software used, scale and resolution, temporal and geographic coverage, and secondary data sources used
• Dataset structure of data files, study cases, and relationships between files
• Data validation, checking, proofing, cleaning, and quality assurance procedure carried out
• Changes made to data over time since their original creation and identification of different versions of data files
• Information on access and use conditions or data confidentiality

(adapted from UKDA)