OSF Changes | Center for Open Science

What’s changing, what’s continuing, and where to find guidance

The Center for Open Science (COS) has a mission to increase openness, integrity, and trustworthiness of research. The Open Science Framework (OSF) opened in 2012, before COS’s incorporation as a charity in 2013, and is an instrumental part of advancing that mission.

We are preparing substantial changes to OSF that will reduce its functionality, focus OSF on its unique strengths, and move toward an integrated model with complementary services like Zenodo, a repository for researchers to share data, materials, and code hosted by CERN, for researchers to do open science. As part of that shift, the OSF Projects workflow – the part of the OSF used for project collaboration, file management, and storage – is being phased out as an active workspace. This change does not affect persistence and accessibility of existing public projects. We are very sorry for the disruption that this will cause for OSF users.

These changes are necessary because of a challenging funding environment for open research infrastructure. Important background about why we are making this change is available in a separate post. Our priorities are to support the long-term discovery and access of content publicly shared on OSF so it remains persistent, discoverable, and accessible, and to ease the transition for users to continue doing open science. Below, we provide an overview of the changes and link to support materials for users to prepare. For detailed guidance, including what to do based on how you use OSF Projects, visit our help guides.

Key Information:

Starting November 16, 2026, no new projects or child components of existing projects can be created on OSF.
After February 19, 2027, all public and private OSF projects will become read-only. You will continue to have the same access, and all links and DOI identifiers will continue to resolve indefinitely.
We anticipate removing private projects in the future, and we intend to provide 12 months advance notice of that decision.

What OSF will continue to support: Study planning and preregistration, sharing papers and preprints, linking plans, data, materials, code, papers, and other research contents together, sharing data, materials and code that is on the OSF as of Feb. 19, 2027; What features are being phased out: Projects and file managements, private storage for new files, sharing new data, materials, and code

How these changes affect common OSF uses

OSF use	What to know
My public OSF Project is complete and does not need updates.	No action is needed. Public projects will remain indefinitely on OSF as a read-only public record that is findable, viewable, and downloadable.
I use OSF Projects for work that still needs updates.	Move ongoing work to another appropriate repository, storage location, or workflow tool.
My OSF Project is private.	Review whether the content can be made public to remain on OSF or move it to another appropriate storage location.
I use OSF for preregistration and study planning, or sharing preprints.	No change. Continue using OSF Registries and community-run OSF Preprints workflows.
I need a place for future data, materials, code, or other outputs.	Use an appropriate repository or storage service, then link those outputs to OSF registrations or preprints where relevant.

For guidance and recommendations based on the situations above, visit the OSF Projects transition help guides. The guides will help you understand what applies to your OSF content, what actions may be needed, and where to find more detailed instructions, including guidance on choosing an appropriate repository.

If you use the OSF to help students learn about open science practices, you can continue to do so, though you may need to adjust how OSF fits into your course. We’ve developed some guidance to support instructors through those adjustments.

Why are these changes happening?

Continuing with the current flexible, expansive OSF would require raising $4-5M per year for the next several years. In the present funding environment, we cannot expect that level of annual support (please see this post for more details about why these changes are necessary).

It is our responsibility to proactively support the persistence of the public scholarly record. This means we need to be honest about our limitations and constraints.

We hope this move will allow COS to focus on the areas where it can provide the strongest service, while working alongside other specialized open infrastructures to strengthen a more sustainable system.

What will OSF be like after these changes?

As outlined in the product roadmap, OSF will focus on enabling researchers to prepare study plans and preregistrations, link related data, materials, and code wherever they are stored, and report associated outcomes, including sharing preprints and papers.

The open science movement has made enormous strides since OSF launched in 2012. There are now several other mature, effective infrastructures supporting open science. By narrowing OSF to the use cases for which it is uniquely suited and impactful, we can lean on specialized services to fill use cases that OSF no longer supports, lower maintenance burden, and allocate resources to improving the usability of a leaner service and supporting long-term discovery and access to publicly shared OSF hosted content. Rather than relying on a single platform to do everything, researchers will use a system of interoperable services. Each service—including OSF—can excel in its role while working together to reduce duplication, streamline workflows, and make open science easier to navigate.

Also, with OSF, we remain committed to the persistence of the scholarly record and to keeping publicly shared research objects and associated metadata persistent, discoverable, and accessible.

Questions?

Visit the OSF Projects transition FAQs for answers to common questions about what is changing, why COS is making these changes, what will continue, and how the transition may affect OSF users and communities.

We are grateful to the OSF users and communities who have helped shape open science with us. COS is committed to supporting users through this transition and continuing to advance open, transparent, and trustworthy research. For additional questions, reach out to support@osf.io

More Resources

OSF Transition Help Guides

Guidance and recommendations based on how you use OSF Projects. Access help guides →

OSF Projects Transition FAQs

Answers to common questions about what is changing, what will continue, and how the transition may affect users and communities. Access the FAQs →

Why OSF is Changing

More background on the history, rationale, and sustainability considerations behind these changes. Learn more →

OSF Product Roadmap

More information about where OSF is headed. Read the product roadmap →

Common OSF Project Use Cases

A short guide to common workflows and recommended options. Learn more →

Guidance for Funders

Information for funders whose policies, programs, or grantee guidance reference OSF Projects. Learn more →

Guidance for Publishers

Information for publishers whose workflows, policies, or author guidance reference OSF Projects. Learn more →