What if you could generate a detailed PDF snapshot of your entire OSF project—including metadata, wikis, files, contributors, components, and logs? A new project led by Ramiro Bravo from the University of Manchester (UoM) is working to make this feature a reality.
Bravo and his team are developing a new OSF functionality that enables users to export project content into a comprehensive PDF file—providing a clear and navigable summary that can be easily referenced, saved to one’s records, or shared.
The goal of this pilot project is to enable users to generate a structured, human-readable PDF that captures essential components of an OSF project, including wiki content, file listings with metadata, contributor and project metadata, component hierarchy, analytics (for public projects), and activity logs.
The feature integrates directly into the OSF project dashboard, enabling secure and permission-aware PDF generation. This portable snapshot can be used for documentation, audits, grant reporting, preregistration or ethics submissions, and offline project sharing.
“Currently, there is no functionality in the OSF project that allows users to have an electronic or physical copy of the research projects they have documented,” Bravo said. “This project will address this issue by giving users the ability to export projects, whether public or private, into a structured PDF.”
This work is supported by a subaward from the Center for Open Science (COS) as part of a broader initiative funded by the National Science Foundation’s Pathways to Enable Open-Source Ecosystems (POSE) program. Through this effort, COS is investing in developer-led enhancements that respond to real user needs, strengthen open science practices, and ensure the long-term resilience of the OSF platform.
The project builds on a Python library that can take any public OSF project URL and generate a structured PDF summary. Users can access the tool via the command line or through a web app that is currently in development.
Bravo brings valuable open science infrastructure insights, enthusiasm, and expertise to the initiative. As a Research Software Engineer supporting the Core Facilities in the Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health at UoM, he plays a key role in promoting tools that help strengthen transparency and reproducibility within the university’s research community. His ongoing contributions to open infrastructure reflect a dedication to building practical solutions that meet researchers’ needs while advancing open research practices.
“With this funding, I’m excited about the ability to collaborate with COS and contribute to the OSF community in the creation of this new feature,” Bravo shared.
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