How can you use Open Science Framework (OSF) in your research project?
In the introduction video below, you can see how Open Science Framework (OSF) supports the Open Research Lifecycle.
OSF information for new users
Many manuals are available for using OSF. They are listed below for the different types of functionality that OSF provides.
Best Practices
File Management and Licensing
Research Design
- Preregistration Preregistration - OSF Support
- Creating a data management plan (DMP) Creating a data management plan (DMP) document - OSF Support
Handling Data
- How to Make a Data Dictionary How to Make a Data Dictionary - OSF Support
- Sharing Research Outputs Sharing Research Outputs - OSF Support
- Sharing data Data Management - OSF Support
Preprints
Creating and Managing OSF Projects
The Open Scholarship Knowledgebase (OSKB)
Resource guides on reproducibility: oercommons.org/curated-collections/1038
Curated Reading List of Metascience
The Center for Open Science (COS) has compiled a list of papers related to the need for more transparent research and the effectiveness of such research practices. You can find the list on their Open Science Literature page. The list includes literature on the following aspects:
- Benefits of transparency
- Data sharing policies and practices
- Reporting Standards, Guidelines, and Checklists
- Effects of preregistration or Registered Reports
- Questionable research practices
- The Reproducibility Crisis
- Evaluating Journals Policies
- Recommendations for Increasing Reproducibility
- Attitudes about open science
Overcoming the Knowledge Barrier
On their page Overcoming the Knowledge Barrier(osf.io/bk6r7/wiki](https://osf.io/bk6r7/wiki/home/), the Center for Open Science provides a lot of information to get started with an open and reproducible research practice. This page lists a lot of resources to get you up to speed with open science practices:
- Primers on implementing open science practices
- Tutorials and online curricula for coded statistical analysis
- Links to open science communities
Center for Open Science content
Preregistration
What is preregistration?
- It is the act of specifying in advance how data will be collected and analysed.
- Preregistrations are time-stamped, immutable documents.
- Preregistrations make the distinction between hypothesis testing, confirmatory research and hypothesis generating, exploratory research more clear.
- Presenting exploratory results as confirmatory increases the publish ability of results at the expense of credibility of results.
How to preregister?
The Preregistration Challenge was an education campaign designed to introduce preregistration as a regular habit. It includes a guided workflow to help you create a preregistration.
See the COS Preregistration page for more information about preregistration and start working on your own preregistration in OSF Registries.
Resources and Further Readings
- Can you preregister if you are using existing data? Yes, see template available at osf.io/registries
- “The Preregistration Revolution”, which covers nine challenging situations in which preregistration is beneficial
- A blog series about preregistration
- The Guardian: Trust in science would be improved by study pre-registration
- Nature: A manifesto for reproducible science
- A presentation from a community member introducing OSF
- A helpful OSF presentation on how to create your first works
Connecting storage and apps
OSF allows you to connect to other storage platforms and services via Add-ons, see the OSF Add-ons and integrations Guide for more information. Storage Add-ons are particularly well suited for data sharing in a project. However, please consider the following when adding them to your project:
- what data (folders) is being shared;
- who this resource is being shared with and;
- who manages the Add-on (e.g. how long will it be available).
Recommended connected storage options are Research Drive (how-to guide) and SURFdrive (how-to guide). The VU discourages using Dropbox and Google Drive for storing research data.
For projects with a Code component creating connections to GitHub repos is a good idea, see the OSF Guide. If you just want to publish a GitHub repo itself consider using Zenodo, see this guide.
You can also connect a dataset in DataverseNL to your project, so published datasets can be viewed in OSF. You can even upload to and delete files from datasets in Draft (how-to guide).
Remember, everyone who has access to your project will be able to see the files in the storage folder you connect, even if you have not explicitly shared the files on the source location!
Metadata recommendation
VU Amsterdam has a minimal metadata guide that describes which mandatory, recommended and optional properties VU researchers should use if they publish their data in any repository. These properties and their explanation are given below for OSF. See also the OSF | VU OSF Documentation Wiki.
Properties and their explanation
M Considered mandatory for findability of your dataset and correct registration in Pure
R Recommended for optimal findability
O Optional
| Property | Obligation | Explanation | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|
| DOI | R | OSF Guide If you want to be able to cite your project it is best to create a DOI for it. |
|
| Title | M | A descriptive title for your dataset, should not be longer than about 200 characters | |
| Contributors | M | The main researchers involved in producing the data, in priority order. | OSF Guide. Make sure to check "Bibliographic Contributor". You can adjust the order of the contributors. Please ask Contributors to fill in their employment status in their user profile to set their affiliation. Users logging in with their VUnetID will automatically be affiliated with the VU. Adding ORCID or other researcher identifiers to contributor profiles is also highly recommended. |
| Tags | M | Provide a list of keywords describing your dataset. This will make it easier to find your dataset on the internet. Some repositories will have controlled term lists to choose from. |
OSF Guide |
| Category | M | Choose the most appropriate category for your project | |
| License | M | Choose the most appropriate license for your project. | OSF Guide For most content and data "CC-By 4.0 International" is a good choice, but especially in the case of code you might look into a more appropriate license. |
Based on VU minimal metadata guidelines version rc2 2022-07-20
Working with sensitive data
Actively choose "Germany - Frankfurt" in the account settings as default storage location when you start a new project. Your research data will be stored in the EU jurisdiction.
Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) via de SURFsecureID (with the tiqr app or a YubiKey) is enabled for all users who log in with VUnetID credentials for improved security and protection of your research data.
OSF has implemented several measures (e.g. OSF storage encryption, regular backups, Standard Contractual Clauses) to increase security of your stored research data as well as guarantee GDPR compliance.
The OSF is developed to facilitate Open Science and sharing of digital research objects. Medium-level sensitive data (e.g. research data that score ‘medium’ at confidentiality in a data classification, research proposals) can be stored, provided it is available only to a specific group of users. VU Amsterdam does not recommend you to store privacy-sensitive data in OSF. For this type of data, please use a more suitable platform such as Research Drive or Yoda. If there is no other suitable way to share a file with privacy-sensitive data, make sure you encrypt the file(s) before you upload them to the OSF. A good way to do this is by adding the files to a password-protected zip file (how-to guide). Storing data that score ‘high’ or ‘very high’ on confidentiality in a data classification (e.g. directly identifying information, all special category personal data, classified information, data about vulnerable people, key files) is prohibited. Please contact the RDM Support Desk.
In case of a security incident or data leak, the data breach response plan is available. Please report possible incidents at OSF Support and always at the VU IT Servicedesk via email or phone: 020 598 0000.
More information on the OSF security policy and implemented measures can be found on OSF Guide.
Retaining access to your data when leaving VU Amsterdam
If you want to retain access to your OSF Projects, you could create a new account with a personal email address. Then merge this account with your institutional account, see the OSF Guide. Do this while your VUnetID is still active!
If your VUnetID has already expired, you can still create a new OSF account and ask a Project Admin to re-add you to the Projects.
If your VUnetID has expired and you are the only Project Admin please contact OSF Support.
Deleting your account
You’re always welcome to deactivate or delete your account. If you would like to delete your OSF account and personal data, please email OSF Support.