Manage Draft Registrations

The guide will walk you through how to access and edit your draft registrations and submit them.


The following is a Table of Contents that links directly to specific sections within the guide.

Accessing Your Draft Registration

How you access your draft registration depends on whether you started a registration from scratch or a registration based on a project/component. Both are included below.

Using your “My Registrations" page

Navigate to ”My OSF”, then select “My Registrations”, then make sure you are on “Drafts, Or click here to see your My Registration Drafts page 


Edit Draft Registrations

Each research registration template is structured differently, with their own sections and questions. The sections are listed across the top of the dashboard. 


Example 1: Open Ended Registration




Example 2: OSF Preregistration



You can navigate the different sections in the research registration template by either using the top panel (1) or pressing the Next and Back buttons (2). 


If a section shows in RED or with an exclamation mark (!), it is required for submission. 

Edit Registration Metadata

Registration metadata

Metadata is descriptive information about your work that helps other researchers discover, cite, and evaluate relevant studies. This includes: Title, Contributors, Licenses, Institutional Affiliations, Subjects, and Tags. NOTE: This section is identical for all registration templates.


Title

You can edit or change your title if needed by editing the registration metadata. Select edit next to the Title section of the metadata, edit the text and select “Save”.



Contributors

You can add additional contributors at this time, whether or not they already have an OSF account. 

When adding contributors, they will need to be assigned specific permissions. All co-authors are given read+write permissions by default. All permission levels can be bibliographic contributors; a non-bibliographic contributor will not have their name associated with the registration, but will maintain the granted permissions. The different levels of permissions are:

  • Read: The contributor can view the registration, but does not have permission to edit.
  • Read + Write: The contributor can view the registration, but does not have permission to edit. The author can add supplemental files.     
  • Administrator: The contributor can view and edit the registration, add supplemental files, manage authors and permissions, start an update, and submit a request to end an embargo early. For updates and ending embargoes early, all admins will receive an email notification to approve or reject the request. See our guides on the 48 hour auto-approve process.

If a contributor already has an account, they can be added as a registered user. Select “Add Contributor by Search”

  1. Then search for the contributor by name.
  2. Select the contributor.
  3. Select the appropriate permissions.
  4. Select "Next".

Adding an Unregistered Contributor

If a co-author already has an account, they can be added as a registered user. Select “Add Contributor by Search”

  1. Select “Add Unregistered Contributor”
  2. Enter the contributor name and email address.
  3. Select “Add”


You can remove contributors using the RED trash can, edit permissions by clicking the {V} arrow button, and change bibliographic status.


Reorder Authors

The order in which your authors appear in the "Authors" list is the order in which they will appear in citations. To reorder authors, select the icon with three bars, then drag and drop the authors into the correct order.


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Institutional Affiliation

If your institution has worked with the Center for Open Science to create a dedicated institutional OSF landing page, you can affiliate your content with the institution in OSF. This is an option when creating content, but can also be edited later. Select Edit in the Affiliated Institutions field and then select the Institution you wish to be affiliated with the content. NOTE: you can only add/remove affiliations that are associated with your account.

License

A license tells others how they can use your work in the future and only applies to the information and files submitted with the registration. For more information, see this help guide.

Select a license by clicking the dropdown menu to select an option.


Subjects

Subjects allow users to categorize their work for easier search and identification by other researchers. You can use the Search field to find more subject areas.


Tags

Tags are an excellent way of highlighting keywords to help your work appear in a researcher's search criteria. Start with the generic terms associated with your project (ex. Virology) and work towards more specific terminology (Covid-19).

Saving

Your draft is automatically saved so you and/or your collaborators can return later. The template autosaves when you move from section to section by selecting “Next”. You can exit the template and return to the draft at any time.


When you have finished editing your draft registration, press “Submit”.


Submit Your Registration

You can submit your registration once the draft is completed. 


Registration includes two processes: submission and archiving. Submission includes the steps to submit a registration, which is slightly different depending on if you started a registration from scratch without a project or started it from a project or component. Archiving includes the steps of storing the submission in the OSF database and contributor approval. 


Submitting Your Registration

“Review” is the last page for all registration templates. Review your answers, if you are ready to submit, then select “Register”. 


If you see anything you want to change, use the top navigation bar (1) or the "Back" button (2) to navigate to that section and update your information.


Privacy Settings

Once you have submitted your registration, you will have two options: 1) make your registration public immediately, OR 2) enter your registration into embargo, which will make it private until the end of the embargo date.

Public 

If you wish for your registration to be publicly available, select “Make registration public immediately”. Then select “Submit”.

Selecting Make registration public immediately will make the registration public. The registration will then get assigned a DOI. 

Note: DOIs are available only for public registrations 

Embargo

Selecting “Enter registration into embargo” will display a Choose Embargo End Date button. Note: If you plan to submit your registration for blinded peer-review, check to make sure that no identifying information is included in any of the metadata or attached documents when you submit your registration and that you EMBARGO your registration. 


Select the Choose Embargo End Date button to display a calendar window. Select a date that the embargo will end and the registration will be made public by either navigating via the Calendar window OR entering the date in the format: YEAR-MONTH-DAY (XXXX-XX-XX). You can embargo it for up to four years. 


Example: if I’m registering on September 10, 2025, I can put the embargo until September 9, 2025 (the registration embargo will end at midnight). 


Then, select “Submit”. 


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