Using the Open Science Framework for data archiving and publishing

The Open Science Framework (OSF) is an open-source platform that can be used to manage, share, and publish your research outputs—from documenting your study design and planning methods, through data collection and analysis, to final publication and dissemination. It can function as a collaborative workspace, enables you to preregister your research project, and makes your study discoverable. However, the OSF is not designed as a research data repository and does not meet the standards that exist for good long-term data archiving. Many of the features that would guarantee long-term data preservation and that make a dataset FAIR are either missing altogether or entirely optional. Because of this, we do not recommend that the OSF is used for the long-term archiving or publishing of research data. This guide is designed to inform researchers at Radboud University about the steps they should take before archiving or publishing research data on the OSF. It makes readers aware of the legal and practical limitations of the OSF platform, and describes what must be considered before data is uploaded to the service. This concerns safety precautions that prevent data breaches and various good practices that encourage alignment with the FAIR principles. A secondary use for this guide could be to help datastewards from other universities come up with their own institutional policies or practical guidelines concerning the OSF platform.