Open Science Framework
The Open Science Framework (OSF) is a project management tool with which you can store, map, manage and publish all the materials of your project – from initial hypotheses, data management plans, the data itself, and analysis steps all the way to publication texts – in a structured manner. Preregistration of planned studies is also possible. In short: your entire project in a single tool.
OSF is provided by the non-profit Center for Open Science (COS) as open-source software. Its use is free of charge and not tied to institutional affiliation: you can register yourself and manage your project independently.
Link to OSF: https://osf.io/
Special features of OSF
- Structured storage of materials at different project levels
- Versioning and documentation of the editing process
- Collaborative work across different locations
- Detailed role management for project participants and external parties
- Assigning usage licenses
- Wiki for documenting work steps within the project
- Storage on a server in Germany
- Integration of external storage locations (e.g. repositories) and tools (e.g. GitLab) for larger data volumes
Helpful links for working with OSF:
Self-guided workshop: Introduction to Open Science Framework
OSF and Openness
OSF was developed to promote Open Science and thus the reproducibility of research.
You can use OSF to make your project publicly accessible. When your project is published, a DOI is assigned as a persistent identifier to ensure that it can be referenced.
However, you can also share your project non-publicly with only a select group of people (e.g. only project members and/or peer reviewers).
Training and consulting for OSF
The Research Data Services support you in getting started with OSF by offering regular hands-on workshops. You are also welcome to contact us if you have any questions.
Dates and registration for workshops can be found here: