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Open Science Framework

Changes to OSF

On 2026-08-11, the Center of Open Science (COS) announced that it will cease support for OSF Projects as part of their pivot to concentrating on “lifecycle open science.” These changes are detailed in OSF’s description of changes.

What this means:

  • Starting November 16, 2026, no new projects or child components of existing projects can be created on OSF.
  • After February 19, 2027, all public and private OSF projects will become read-only. You will continue to have the same access, and all links and DOI identifiers will continue to resolve indefinitely.
  • It is likely that support and storage for private projects will cease completely at some point in the future.

If you use OSF Projects, here is what you can do now:

  • Assess any public projects
    • If they are complete, you probably don’t need to do anything
    • If they are active, start planning for:
      • how you want to wrap them up
      • where these collaborations and components can be moved to continue work
    • Reach out to data-management@mit.edu with questions and assistance in finding solutions
  • Assess any private projects
    • Consider if it is appropriate to make them public
    • Start planning for:
      • how you want to wrap them up
      • where these collaborations and components can be moved to either preserve or continue work
    • Reach out to data-management@mit.edu with questions and assistance in finding solutions

If you use OSF for preregistration and study planning, or sharing preprints, you’re good! These OSF functions should only improve going forward. No actions to take.

OSF (Open Science Framework) is free, open-source infrastructure for documenting and sharing the research process, developed and maintained by the nonprofit Center for Open Science (COS). OSF supports two core functions:

  • A structured registration workflow for publishing study plans with linked data, code, materials, and papers as a persistent, citable record of the research process.
  • Community-operated preprint services — infrastructure for research communities, journals, and institutions to share and discover working papers and open-access publications.

OSF is free to use, assigns persistent identifiers (DOIs) to records, and is maintained by a nonprofit with no commercial interest in the research it holds.

OSF for MIT

MIT affiliates can sign into OSF with MIT credentials here (Choose “login” and then select “login through your institution”). Use this OSF for MIT portal to affiliate your registrations and pre-prints with MIT.

OSF in Open Science and Open Access

Open science is an approach to research that emphasizes transparency, reproducibility, and accessibility at every stage of the research process — from study planning through to publication and data sharing. OSF can be part of the infrastructure supporting this approach.

Where OSF fits in the open scholarship landscape:

Stage What you need Recommended tool
Study planning Document hypotheses & methods OSF Registries (preregistration)
Data collection & analysis Active file management & code version control GitHub, institutional storage
Data archiving Long-term, citable data deposit Zenodo, Dryad, institutional repository
Sharing findings early Preprint before peer review OSF Preprints server (community-specific)
Connecting the full record Link plan → outputs → outcomes OSF Registries (linked registration)
Publication Peer-reviewed, open-access publishing Open access journals, institutional open access support

Don’t know what preprints are or are interested in exploring preprint options? Contact the Scholarly Publishing team at Ask Scholarly Communications. Contact data-management@mit.edu for assistance with finding solutions for data.

Resources

OSF Support Resources (from COS)

If you would like assistance using OSF for MIT or need help determining if OSF will meet your needs, contact Data Management Services at data-management@mit.edu.