Details of OSF Projects transition
This Article Is Licensed Under CCO For Maximum Reuse.
Summary
OSF Project workflows are being phased out. Public OSF Projects will remain on OSF as a Read-only Project and will be accessible at the same URLs and DOIs. COS’s focus includes a continued commitment to the persistence of the scholarly record. Private OSF Projects will also become Read-only and will remain accessible to users with appropriate access. Publicly shared data, materials, code, and other files stored in public OSF Projects will remain viewable and downloadable.
As a first step, users will no longer be able to create new Projects or Project Components after November 16, 2026. On February 19, 2027, all existing OSF Projects will become read-only. After that date, users will no longer be able to add, edit, or update Project content. OSF will continue to support Registrations and Preprints.
This means OSF will no longer function as a general project collaboration, data repository, or file management space. Public Projects will remain publicly viewable, findable, and downloadable, but users will no longer be able to add, edit, or update project content. Existing links to public OSF Projects will continue to point to those public Project records. Existing storage add-on connections will continue to appear on OSF Projects. Uses of Preprints and Registration on OSF will be unaffected.
COS is providing guidance to help researchers who have used OSF for functions that will be phased out.
Read-Only Projects
Public Projects in OSF will still be accessible and findable on the OSF platform after February 19, 2027, and they may still be removed, just not further added to or edited. They will remain on OSF which will continue to manage their access and storage.
Private Projects will also be converted to read-only and will continue to be accessible to those who are contributors. Going forward, administrators will retain the ability to change Project status from private to public or delete them entirely.
Because private workflows are costly to maintain, further changes may be made in the future to infrastructure or storage capabilities for private projects. Throughout the remainder of 2026 and into early 2027, we will evaluate user needs and long-term maintenance requirements. We will engage users and members throughout the process and provide updates as our plans evolve.
We anticipate removing private Projects but intend to provide substantial advance notice, with a target of at least 12 months.
Users will also no longer have the ability to create Registrations from Projects. They will continue to be able to create new Registrations directly through the Registration workflow or from the Dashboard/workflow launcher.
To begin the transition process for this change, no new Projects or Components will be able to be created after November 16, 2026. Projects will still be editable at this time and new content can still be added to existing Projects and Components until the later transition in February 2027.
The OSF APIs will still be available, but all functions to create new Projects will be deprecated after November 16, 2026, and all functions to edit Projects will be deprecated after February 19, 2026.
Should you choose to move a public Project, especially those with a DOI minted through OSF, to another platform, you will need to notify us so that the DOIs and links can be updated or redirected. Find out how at Redirect My DOI or URL
Alternately, users may wish to download private project content in order to continue working in another location. You can learn more about how to download OSF Project contents or manage your research content or non-research content in other guides.
Add-on Storage Locations
Connections with add-on storage locations such as Google Drive, Dropbox, and One Drive will be maintained. They will continue to show updated lists of files available in those locations and will be accessible. They will no longer be modifiable through the OSF interface (for example, the ability to upload a new file to the add-on will not be possible). No new storage add-ons can be configured for projects, but reauthentication to keep an existing connection, and the ability to connect and remove existing add-ons will still be available. A full list of supported add-on functions can be found in Transition Impact on Add-ons.
Longer term, OSF’s product direction is toward linked services and interoperable connections that allow research materials to live in appropriate external systems while remaining connected to OSF records. If further changes are made to add-ons, we will provide substantial advance notice, with a target of at least 12 months.
Search, Registrations, Preprints
Everything else on OSF will operate as it did previously. Search will continue to function as usual and public Project materials will remain findable, citable, downloadable, and reusable. Users will continue to be able to create new Registrations and Preprints. Once Projects are in a Read-only state, they will still be findable through OSF Search.
No Preprint or Registration content in any stage (embargo, draft, published, etc.) will be affected.
This Article Is Licensed Under CCO For Maximum Reuse.