Sara Bowman, Nici Pfeiffer

Center for Open Science, United States of America

Researchers are busy. Data and materials management and project management are time-consuming; tools for managing the ‘housekeeping’ tasks of research can have a big impact on a researcher’s, or a research team’s, efficiency. The non-profit Center for Open Science (COS) seeks to connect and streamline the research workflow through use of its web application, OSF (https://osf.io), and institutional offering, OSF Institutions. Free and open source, OSF manages the entire research lifecycle: planning, execution, reporting, archiving, and discovery. Part version control system, part collaboration tool, and part project management software, OSF facilitates research transparency. OSF streamlines workflows by connecting tools researchers already use — examples include Dropbox, figshare, and Dataverse — allowing resources housed in different services to be displayed in one central location. OSF Institutions creates a seamless user experience by integrating single sign on authentication, and provides a central hub for research projects on a dedicated, branded page. OSF Institutions helps university librarians and administrators gain insight on research collaboration throughout their institutions, and evaluate impact of research investment beyond citations. This talk will highlight the ways the OSF enables open science, streamlines research workflows, and facilitations collaboration.