The University of Maryland Libraries and the Division of Research are pleased to announce that UMD is now an institutional partner of the Open Science Framework (OSF), an online research management and collaboration platform from the Center for Open Science. The OSF system makes it easier for UMD researchers to manage projects throughout their life cycles and to collaborate with others across institutions, with an overarching goal of making more research outputs and data transparent, discoverable, and reusable. UMD researchers can log into the new OSF portal at https://osf.umd.edu/, using their university credentials.
OSF’s suite of project management features and integrated tools helps research teams collaborate easily. They can make all or part of their projects private or publicly accessible for broad dissemination, as they wish. As a flexible workflow system, OSF enables connections to the many tools researchers already use, such as GitHub, Zotero, and other services, which can streamline processes and increase efficiency. As a file- and data-sharing network, the platform provides researchers with means for better version control and archiving of documents, and centralized storage, integration, and sharing of data across the research life cycle. OSF also provides DOIs for projects and metrics for views and downloads.
UMD researchers with personal OSF accounts will be able to link their existing accounts to the UMD Portal via single sign-on authentication. More information about OSF is available on the UMD Libraries’ website at https://lib.guides.umd.edu/osf or the OSF for Institutions website.
“Many researchers are recognizing the benefits of open science,” said Dr. Laurie Locascio, UMD’s Vice President for Research. “The ability for other researchers to find and see the various components of an open project, ranging from plans to data and other outputs, may ultimately improve the quality and impact of research.”
Among dozens of UMD researchers already using the OSF framework with personal accounts, Dr. Philip Cohen, UMD Professor in Sociology, is an enthusiastic advocate for the system. “I’m delighted that the University of Maryland has joined OSF as an institutional member. OSF is a great platform for managing scientific collaborations. Its sharing options allow open licensing and sustainable archiving, which is ideal for making research materials available to the wider research community. In an OSF project I can synchronize folders across cloud services like Github, Dropbox, and Google Drive, and securely manage permissions for different elements of a project. It's a great place for beginning or advanced users to start an open science collaboration.”
An introduction to OSF, "Transparency in Research: Leveraging the Open Science Framework," will be offered on Thursday, May 27, 2021, from 10:00-11:00 am via Zoom. Register here.
Other opportunities to learn more about making the most of the OSF platform will be offered in the coming months from the University of Maryland Libraries. A workshop on OSF’s facilitation on research reproducibility will be offered in the Fall 2021 semester with details to be announced closer to the date. For questions about using UMD’s OSF portal for researchers, contact Nevenka Zdravkovska, Head of the STEM Library at nevenka@umd.edu.