We build in the open

COS builds open source infrastructure to support our mission of increasing transparency, openness and reproducibility.

Our vision is to make it possible and easy to do open science by providing the infrastructure and tools to easily implement open and rigorous practices into the research lifecycle. Our infrastructure, the Open Science Framework (OSF) and its suite of services are open source, and the code is fully visible to the community to view its continual development. We invite the communities OSF serves to contribute code and ideas to enhance functionality, and have peace of mind and security in knowing they will never be locked-in.

Open source code often has added benefits by its very nature which make it more reliable and secure due to the increased review. Open source tools offer long-term viability due to a supportive community, transparency, and freedom from proprietary restrictions on research data and outcomes.

How we prioritize features

User Experience

Making design improvements to streamline the research lifecycle activities on OSF through user-centered design and user testing.

Community Powered

OSF features and priorities are driven by feedback from current and potential OSF users, OSF service members, and technology integrators.

An Open Lifecycle

New integrations and developments for the OSF suite that support open science practices at every stage of the research lifecycle.

Latest Features

To meet our vision for OSF, we continuously use feedback to inform our priorities.

Have feedback? Email us at support@osf.io.

OSF Search

With increasing requirements for open sharing of research outputs from funders, governments, and research communities, comes the need to ensure searching and indexing of research can meet these demands. Discover OSF content based on subject, object type, and even funders that supported the work.

New Preprint Submission Workflow

Creating a preprint on OSF is easier and more intuitive than ever thanks to a reengineered submission workflow and a new submission review page. Additional features coming in 2024 include affiliations for OSF Institutions members and versioned DOIs.

Enhanced and Specialized Metadata

Researchers are now able to add information about the types of materials they are sharing on the OSF, as well as sources of funding or support, to enable improved organization, and increased discovery, and reuse of your research outputs. Integration of the CEDAR Embeddable Editor makes it possible and easy for researchers to make their research FAIR by annotating their research artifacts with specialized metadata.

Features Coming Soon

We are developing new features to make it easier to do and discovering lifecycle open science.

OSF Profile Pages to Demonstrate Open Scholarship

All of a user's public OSF content will be discoverable, utilizing all of the dynamic features of OSF Search. Find content based on subject, object type, and even funders that supported the work. Open Practice Badges highlight the transparent practices that a user has demonstrated.

Dashboards Empower Institutional Curation and Impact

OSF Institutional member administrators will have access to insights and open practice trends across their communities. Filter and sort by subject, object type, and institutional department. Read more about OSF Institutions.

Improved Add-Ons Interfaces and Workflows

Integrations built directly into the OSF, including storage providers, repositories, citation managers, and remote computing tools, are being redesigned from the ground up to enable an OSF add-ons marketplace. Easily configure your favorite tools with your OSF projects, and participate in developer communities that are building brand new connections.

Hero image: Photo by Kaleidico on Unsplash