Leveraging View-Only Links for Private Projects and Embargoed Preregistrations on OSF

In this month’s edition of Tips & Tricks, we’re focusing on how to create view-only links for your private projects and embargoed preregistrations. These links are a fantastic way to share your work with selected individuals, such as grant reviewers, publishers, or trusted colleagues, without adding them as full contributors. Let’s explore how you can use these links to maintain control over your project visibility while collaborating effectively.

Creating a View-Only Link for a Private Project or for an Embargoed Registration

• To create a view-only link for a private project, follow these steps
• To create a view-only link for an embargoed registration, follow these steps

What Do Private Projects and Embargoed Registrations Look Like to the Outside World?

Private Projects: If someone tries to access your private project, they will see a "Request Access" page. This page allows them to submit a request to join your project, but they won’t be able to view any details until you grant them access.

Embargoed Registrations: When someone attempts to access an embargoed registration, they will encounter a "Page Not Found" error. This ensures that the details of your preregistration remain completely hidden until you decide to lift the embargo.

Anonymizing Your View-Only Link

Anonymizing your view-only link can be particularly useful for blinded peer reviews or other situations where you want to hide identifying information. When you anonymize a view-only link:

• Private Projects: Names, citations, and recent activity will be hidden
• Embargoed Registrations: Contributor names on the "Overview" page and in the "Recent Activity" section, as well as the "Authors" section of the form for preregistrations, will be hidden

Please note that anonymizing the link does not affect any files associated with the project or preregistration.

Restrictions on Anonymizing View-Only Links

While anonymizing view-only links is a powerful feature, there are some restrictions:

• You must be an admin on the project or registration to create and manage view-only links
• Read and read+write contributors cannot create these links

Managing Your View-Only Links

After creating a view-only link, you can easily manage it:

• Copy and Share the Link: In the "View-only Links" section, click the Copy icon to the left of the link. The link will be copied to your clipboard for sharing
• Remove a View-Only Link: Click the X to the right of the link. A modal will appear asking you to confirm the removal. Click Remove to delete the link

We hope this guide helps you make the most of OSF's view-only link feature, enhancing your ability to collaborate and share your work securely. If you have any questions or need further assistance, feel free to reach out to our support team (support@osf.io)!

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