Activities: Next steps on the OSF Dashboard
1. Where to Start on the OSF?
Your journey on the Open Science Framework (OSF) depends on where you are in the research life cycle. Whether you are planning a study, collecting data, analyzing results, or sharing your findings, OSF has tools to support every stage of your research.
See our Recording library for full length tutorials on the OSF tools, or sign up for our next live onboarding to the OSF held monthly
Suggested Activity: Consider your current research stage and explore the OSF tools most relevant to your needs. For example, if you're planning a study, check out the "Projects" section to start organizing your materials.
2. OSF Overview
The Open Science Framework (OSF) is a free, open-source platform that supports researchers throughout their project lifecycle. OSF offers a suite of tools to help you manage your research, collaborate with others, and share your findings publicly or privately. The platform is designed to enhance transparency, reproducibility, and collaboration in research.
Suggested Activity: Take a quick tour of the OSF by visiting the our overview video on the OSF tools to get familiar with the platform's features and how they can support your research.
3. Searching the OSF
The OSF hosts a vast repository of research projects, preprints, and registrations. You can search for existing research, collaborators, or topics of interest using the OSF's powerful search functionality.
Suggested Activity: Practice searching the OSF by looking for projects related to your field of study. Try using different keywords or filters to refine your search results. For example, search for "climate change" and explore the projects, preprints, and registrations that appear in the results. Here is another guide to help you leverage the search improvement on the OSF
4. OSF Projects
An OSF project is a flexible workspace where you can organize your research materials, collaborate with others, and track your progress. Each project can include files, data, protocols, and other materials. Projects can be kept private or shared publicly, depending on your needs.
Suggested Activity: Create a new OSF project to organize your current research. Use the Template guide to explore examples of how to structure your project effectively. Consider adding collaborators and assigning roles to team members.
5. OSF Registrations
An OSF registration is a time-stamped snapshot of your research plan, hypotheses, or protocols. Registrations are often used to pre-register studies, ensuring that your research is conducted transparently. Registrations can also be linked to OSF projects for a comprehensive view of your research lifecycle.
Suggested Activity: Review an example registration to see how researchers document their study plans. Consider creating a registration for your next study using the OSF Registration Guide to help you through the process.
6. OSF Preprints
OSF Preprints is a free service that allows researchers to share their manuscripts before they are formally peer-reviewed. This accelerates the dissemination of research and allows for early feedback from the community. Preprints can be linked to related OSF projects, registrations, and data.
Suggested Activity: Explore recent preprints in your field by visiting OSF Preprint services at the bottom of this page. Review how other researchers present their work, and consider submitting a preprint of your own for rapid dissemination.
Found a term you don’t understand? Check out our OSF dictionary
