OSF Collections

OSF Collections is a pay-for-service tool designed for funders, journals, societies, communities, organizations, and other groups in need of building and searching related OSF projects.

Help Guide Sections: 

• What is a Collection?
• How do I add a project/component to a Collection?
• How do I view the status of a Collection request?
• How do I edit a project/component within the Collection?
• How do I remove a project/component from a Collection?
• How do I cancel a request to add a project/component to a Collection?
• How do I resubmit a project/component to a Collection?
• How do I resubmit a project/component to a Collection with a comment?
• FAQs

What is a Collection?

An OSF Collection is a pay-for-service tool designed for funders, journals, societies, communities, organizations, or other groups who desire to create a content specific public repository of projects or components, that have been curated by Collection moderators to promote discoverability and reusability specific to each Collections’ specific content/scope.

Are there requirements for a project/component to be associated with a Collection?

• Only already created projects or components can be added to a collection. 
• The main project or component must be public. However, any sub-components within the project may be private.
  • Private components will not be available in the collection until they are made public.
  • A description will be required when a request to add a project/component to a Collection is made.

How do I add a project or component to a Collection?

In order to add a project/component to a Collection, first identify the specific Collection that is relevant to the work. The project/component will need to be public to be added to a Collection.

• First log in to the OSF ,
• Then navigate to a collection; e.g., https://osf.io/collections/metascience
• You will be taken to the Collection’s “discover” page, see image below, where all public projects/components that have been added to the collection will be indexed.
• Click the “Add to Collection” tab in the navigation bar at the top of the page. The "Add to Collection" page will appear.

• Select the project/component from the drop-down menu that you want to add, or type to search your available projects/components, see image below.

Edit Project/Component Metadata

Once you've selected the project/component you wish to add to the Collection, you will need to edit the associated Metadata:

1. The project/component title will be auto-filled but can be modified in the text field
2. Description (required field)
3. License (collections may have certain license requirements)
4. Tags (optional, but recommended to aid in discoverability) to your project/component.
5. Then click "Save and continue".

Edit Project/Component Contributors

Next, you will need to edit the associated contributors, see image below.

Edit 

1. Add Registered contributors to your project/component by searching by name. 
2. If they don't have an OSF account, you can also add an Unregistered contributor
3. Select their permissions level
4. Then click "Continue".

Edit Collection metadata

Next select metadata related to the Collection from respective windows. These are required and will vary depending on the collection. This is shown in the image below.

1. Type (example) 
2. Status (example) 
3. Then click "Continue".
4. Finally, click “Add to Collection”.

How do I view the status of a collection request?

On the project/component page, there will be a drop-down section that will show the Collection status', see image below.

Types of Status' include: 

• Pending: after requesting to be added to a Collection, this will be the status until a collection moderator has made a decision to approve or not approve the addition to the collection.
• Included in: indicating a collection moderator has accepted the request to add the project/component. NOTE: this is the only publicly viewable status.
• Rejected from: indicating a collection moderator has not accepted the request to add the project/component. NOTE: requires a justification from collection moderator, which is only viewable by project/component admin contributors.
• Removed from: indicating either A) the collection has removed the project/component and will provide a justification OR B) an admin on the project/component has chosen to remove the project/component from the collection (no justification required).  NOTE: moderator removal from a collection will NOT result in removal from the OSF, moderator removal requires a justification from collection moderator, which is only viewable by project/component admin contributors.
• Justifications from moderators are accessed by the dropdown. NOTE: justifications are only viewable by admin contributors on the project/component.

How do I edit my project/component within the Collection?

• Go to your project/component.
• Open the Edit view, by clicking on the pencil icon, see image below.

Edit the project/component

In order to edit the project/component within the collection, follow the steps shown in the image below.

1. Project/Component Metadata 
2. Project contributors
3. Collection metadata. 
4. Then click Update.

How do I remove a project/component from a collection?

In order to remove a project from a collection, follow the steps outlined and shown in the image below.

• Go to your project/component
• Open the Edit view , by clicking on the pencil icon.

1. Click "Remove from collection"
2. Enter Optional reason for removal.

How do I cancel a request to add a project/component to a collection?

To cancel a request to add a project/component to a collection, follow the steps outlined in the image below.

• Go to your project/component
• Click "X" to cancel the pending status

How do I resubmit a project/component to a collection?

To resubmit to a collection, follow the steps shown in the image below.

• Go to your project/component.
• Click the resubmit button.

How do I resubmit a project/component to a collection with a comment?

In order to respond to a note from a moderator, follow the directions in How do I add a project/component to a Collection?

At the end after clicking on the Submit button you will see an additional box pop up where you can explain any changes made based on moderator comments made during rejection or removal, see image below.

General FAQs:

What license will I need?

Various Collections may have different licensing requirements, during the request to add you will have the ability to update your license to a license approved/required by the Collection, but you can update your license at any time. More information on Licensing.

What if I have private components within my project?

Anything within your project/component that is private at the time you add to the Collection will not be included within the Collection. If at a future time you decide to make these components public, they will be automatically updated within the Collection.

How will I know the status of my project or component’s addition to the Collection?

On the project/component page there will be a drop-down section that will show the Collection status, status’ include:

• Pending: after requesting to be added to a Collection, this will be the status until a collection moderator has made a decision to approve or not approve the addition to the collection.
• Included in: indicating a collection moderator has accepted the request to add the project/component. NOTE: this is the only publicly viewable status.
• Rejected from: indicating a collection moderator has not accepted the request to add the project/component. NOTE: requires a justification from collection moderator, which is only viewable by project/component admin contributors.
• Removed from: indicating either A) the collection has removed the project/component and will provide a justification OR B) an admin on the project/component has chosen to remove the project/component from the collection (no justification required).  NOTE: moderator removal from a collection will NOT result in removal from the OSF, moderator removal requires a justification from collection moderator, which is only viewable by project/component admin contributors.
• Justifications from moderators are accessed by the dropdown. NOTE: justifications are only viewable by admins on the project.

How do I remove my project/component from a Collection?

If at any point you decide you no longer wish to be associated with a specific Collection, you can “Remove” your project/component from the Collection, and the Collection Moderator(s) will be informed that your project/component has been removed. 

Can I still make changes to my project or component once it is in a Collection?

Yes, your project/component is a sandbox that is in a constant state of change with additions and updates possible by Contributors on your project/component. This ability to update your project or component will remain after association with a Collection.

Will changes to a project or component require moderation?

No, once a project/component has been associated with a Collection, any updates will not require further moderation.

Can I change the settings on my project or component to private once it has been added to a Collection?

Yes, if for some reason you wish to make your project/component private, you can still do this after association with a Collection. NOTE that making your project/component “Private” will automatically REMOVE the project/component from the Collection. In order to be associated with the Collection again, you will need to go through the Addition process again.

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