OSF can be an ideal platform for sharing your research data, but it is not suitable for all use cases. OSF may be a good data sharing option if you:

• You need an easy-to-learn and free data sharing platform. The OSF interface is easy to learn, and you can add and share your data without needing approval from OSF administrators. It is also free to use. 
• You want a high degree of control over the files that you share. OSF is flexible in the file types that it accepts, and you can add or remove files even after you have publicly shared your project.
• You need to comply with funder mandates for data sharing. OSF is part of the NIH's Generalist Repository Ecosystem Initiative and works to ensure that it is a compliant platform researchers can use for data sharing.

However, OSF is not the platform for you if:

• You are sharing sensitive data. OSF is not a suitable platform for sharing private health information or personally identifiable information. 
• You have complex data curation needs. Unlike some other repositories, OSF does not offer data curation services. Your data is preserved and shared in the form that you submit it.
• You have a large amount of data. At the time of this writing, OSF limits data storage on publicly shared projects to 50 GB total. See the Project Storage page for the most up-to-date information regarding storage limits. 

Prepare Your Data for Sharing

Regardless of how you share your data, review it to make sure that it is ready for publication and reuse. While data preparation will vary depending on research type, some important steps to take include:

• Ensuring that any data collected from human subjects or participants has been appropriately de-identified. (Remember, OSF does not provide HIPAA-compliant data storage.)
• Converting files to open file formats when possible (for example, converting Excel files to CSV's) to facilitate reuse of your data in a broader range of software environments.
• Documenting your data so that others can easily determine key information about its collection, organization, and analysis. One recommended form of documentation is a README file, which you can create from this template provided by Cornell Data Services. Make sure that your data documentation (whether a README, data dictionary, or codebook) is included with the files themselves, so that a user downloading your data from OSF will still have access to it. However, you can also use the Wiki space to provide key README-style information within the project space itself.

Use Folders to Group Your Files

Folders are a convenient way of grouping related files together.  The Files section of OSF operates similarly to the file explorer on your computer.

• If you have few files: You can upload all your files at once to the top of the directory by clicking on the OSF Storage folder and then clicking Upload. Then create your folders and drag and drop the files to their appropriate folder.
• If you have a large number of files: Create your folder structure (including any sub-folders) before adding any files. To add files to a specific folder, click on the desired folder, making sure that it is highlighted, and then click Upload. 

If need be, you can continue to move around files by dragging and dropping them to the right folder.

Assign Your Data a License

A license lets other users know how they are allowed to reuse your data and other components of your project. OSF supports a wide variety of license types, but two recommended ones are:

• A CC0 1.0 Universal designation (if you would like to maximize reuse of your data). A CC0 designation waives any copyright claim you may have on your data, which frees any researcher reusing it from the burden of tracking and complying with multiple different licenses for different datasets, a problem known as attribution stacking. Remember, an intellectual property claim on your data is separate from expectations in a scholarly community. Even if you have released your data under a CC0 designation, any researchers reusing your data will still be expected to cite your contribution.
• A CC-BY license (for additional research outputs). A CC-BY license allows others to reuse or adapt your research outputs without contacting you first, so long as they provide you with attribution. This is best applied to any additional research outputs you may be including in your OSF space, such as presentation slides.

You can easily set a project-wide license that will apply to all files in your project space. If you want to include separate licenses for specific files, you can add them to the Components space. 

Update Your Project Citation

OSF generates default citations based on the metadata you have entered for your project, but you have the option to customize it and provide a preferred citation. (For instance, if you have worked with a collaborator who is not part of the OSF project space, you will need to customize the citation to manually add them as an author). 

Make Your Project Public

Once you are sure that all the pieces of your project are ready to be shared, you can publish it, which will make it available to anyone on the internet. While it is possible to un-publish a project, its contents may have been cached by a search engine or crawled by a web scraper, so do not publish your project until you are sure that all data within it can be shared. Once a project has been published, you can continue to make changes to it, such as uploading or deleting files or editing the Wiki.

Assign Your Project a DOI

A DOI (or Digital Object Identifier) is a persistent identifier that makes it easier to index a resource and therefore improves its long-term accessibility and discoverability. Journals or funders may ask for your dataset's DOI in order to ensure that you have complied with sharing requirements.

Enhance Your Project with Additional Metadata

For a detailed overview of metadata to include for your project, see the Metadata for Research Discoverability page.

Add Your Project to the UMB Data Catalog

Adding your datasets to the UMB Data Catalog enhances their discoverability and potential for reuse. Fill out this request form to let the Data Catalog know that you would like your datasets on OSF to be indexed. 

OSF is a publicly available data repository that does not restrict user access. This fact should be reflected in the informed consent form provided to participants if your research involves human subjects. Consider using the following sample language as a starting point:

"Information you provide in this study may be used in the future without your additional informed consent by other researchers to advance scientific research and public health. At this time, we do not know the specific details of these future research projects. These projects may involve bringing together information from this study with information from other studies or sources outside typical research settings."

Sections 4 of the Data Management and Sharing Plan for NIH grants requires that applicants address data preservation, access, distribution, and associated timelines for the sharing of data generated by their research. This section provides some template language (adapted from the NIH's sample DMSPs) that you can utilize if you are using OSF to share your research data. 

Section 4: Data Preservation, Access, and Associated Timelines

Repository where scientific data and metadata will be archived:

All data will be made available via a project space on OSF (Open Science Framework), a public repository supported by the Center for Open Science and shared under a CC0 (public domain) waiver for maximum reuse in subsequent research.  

How scientific data will be findable and identifiable:

Datasets in OSF will be findable and identifiable through a digital object identifier (DOI) minted by OSF. Metadata regarding the funding of this research, including the NIH research organization registry (ROR) identifier, award title, and award number will be included as well.  

When and how long the scientific data will be made available:

Data from the study will be publicly shared on OSF no later than [X months after completion of fieldwork, the time of publication, the conclusion of the award period, or similar timeline]. The Center for Open Science guarantees the accessibility of data made available via OSF for a minimum of 50 years.