OSF: how to manage the OSF Projects transition?
In this research tip, we give recommendations to OSF Project contributors on dealing with the changes to OSF Projects, announced on August 11th, 2026.
What is changing to OSF projects?
OSF Projects are being phased out between November 2026 and February 2027. Public and private content will be preserved and will remain accessible in a read-only state until further notice.
- November 16th, 2026: No new projects or project components can be created. Existing projects can still be edited until February 19th, 2027.
- February 19th, 2027:
- Public and private projects become read-only. Users will continue to have the same access, and all links and DOI identifiers will continue to resolve. No changes can be made to existing public and private projects.
- Registrations cannot be created from projects. New registrations can only be created through the dedicated registration workflow.
- Links to storage add-ons (e.g. OneDrive for Work or School) will be maintained on all projects and will remain visible.
Other OSF functionalities, such as Preregistrations and Preprints remain available. Researchers can continue to use OSF to register study plans, publish preprints through community-run services, and link registrations to related data, materials, code, publications, and other results stored in other repositories or systems.
How do you use OSF projects?
OSF Projects can be used to store and organize research files and to document a research project, both while the project is ongoing and after it has been completed.
Because the available OSF services are changing, you may need to take action to preserve or migrate your project content. What you need to do depends mainly on how you use or have used OSF Projects. Use the flowchart below to identify which situation applies to your OSF project(s) and which section(s) of this research tip you should consult. Start by asking:
- Is your OSF project still active (i.e. you still need to make changes to your OSF project) or is it completed?
- Is your OSF project private or public?
- If your OSF project is public, does it have a DOI? And has it been referenced somewhere by using the OSF link (https://osf.io/...)?
- Does your OSF project contain information in the wiki that needs to be preserved or migrated?
What to consider when choosing alternative tools?
The following sections recommend alternatives for different ways of using OSF Projects. Depending on your needs, replacing OSF may require more than one tool or service. For example, you may use one solution for storing files and another for documenting or publishing your research.
When choosing between the solutions suggested in this tip, or when considering other alternatives, take the following guidelines into account:
- Choose trustworthy and established solutions that together meet your needs.
- Use secure, institutionally provided solutions for personal and other confidential data.
When using non-institutionally provided solutions, researchers are responsible for checking pricing, licensing, terms of use, sustainability, trustworthiness and data security. - Consider access, backup, storage, and long-term preservation.
- Where possible, use open formats and persistent identifiers to support future access, reuse, and migration.
I need a place to store or preserve my research data
What you need to do depends on whether your OSF project is still active or already complete.
Alternatives for active projects
If your OSF project is still active (i.e. you still need to make changes, such as adding or removing files), download the content and move it to another platform before February 19th, 2027. For data storage during your research project, we recommend centrally offered storage solutions. The most suitable option depends on factors such as the amount of storage you need or whether you need to share data with collaborators outside Ghent University. See our guidance on data storage.
Alternatives for completed projects
If your project is private and its content needs to remain private, download and move it to an appropriate centrally provided solution. For long-term storage/preservation of data that cannot be deposited in a repository, the network drives are the recommended option.
If the project is or can be made public, check our recommendations in the section “I want to keep my completed research outputs available”.
I want to keep my completed research data available
If your completed project is either public or can be made public, you have two main options.
Move your research data to another repository
If your completed project does not have a DOI yet, you should download and move your research data to another suitable repository, such as Zenodo. For long-term sharing and preservation, this is the recommended option.
If your OSF project has been referenced with a link (such as https://osf.io/..), it is advisable to request a URL redirection (i.e. request that the OSF link points to the DOI provided by the new repository).
Keep your project on OSF
If your completed, public project already has a DOI, it can remain on OSF. All public projects will become read-only but will remain available for viewing and downloading for the foreseeable future. See OSF’s preservation plan for more information.
If you have concerns about the long-term accessibility of your research data on OSF, you can move them to another suitable repository. Avoid having multiple DOIs for your dataset: if your OSF project has already been cited using its DOI, request a DOI redirection so that the existing DOI continues to point to the research output. Contact rdm.support@ugent.be in case of doubt.
I need a solution for project documentation
If you used your OSF project or its wiki to document your research, you may need to move that documentation to another solution.
If your project is complete and public, the documentation can remain in the read-only OSF project after February 19th, 2027.
If you have an active project or if, for any other reason, you want to move your documentation away from OSF, several documentation methods can be considered (check our RDM webpage on documentation). The best option depends on what you need to document and who needs access to it. Where possible, documentation should be openly accessible, but use a restricted or UGent-internal solution when confidentiality or limited access is required. Depending on how you used OSF for documentation, suitable alternatives may include:
- If you used the OSF Wiki for project documentation: you can convert it to a README file that can be stored alongside the relevant files.
- For general project notes, you can also consider tools such as OneNote or any other (Markdown-based) note-taking tool.
- If you used OSF as an electronic lab notebook (ELN): move your documentation to the institutional RSpace solution.
- If you used OSF to document code or scripts: keep the code and its documentation in an appropriate version control software, such as GitHub.
- If you used OSF to provide an overview of related research outputs: you could:
- use the “related work” or equivalent linking fields provided by repositories;
- include an overview of related outputs in a README file deposited with the data or code;
- create a new OSF registration that links the relevant outputs.
Practical tips
- Which projects do I have? Are they private or public?
- Who has permissions to make a project public, download, close the project?
- How to download files, wiki? Do I duplicate content?
- How do I redirect my DOI or URL when I migrate content to a repository?
- Request a DOI or URL redirect
- Only admin contributors can submit requests and priority will be given to DOIs or URLs that have been published/shared.
- Am I using add-ons?
- You can see all the add-ons you have connected on your user profile page.
- Who do I inform about the change?
- In any case, contact the project contributors and decide on what will be done with the project content.
- If your content stays in a public project on OSF, there is no need to inform anyone.Make sure that the public project has a DOI which you can continue to use to refer to the project. If you have been using an OSF link, this link will remain functional until further notice.
- If your content is migrated from OSF to a data repository, and the DOI redirect is handled, there is no need to inform anyone. By clicking the DOI, people will be redirected to the new location of your content. If you have been using an OSF link (https://osf.io/...), a redirect can be put in place as well.
- If your content is migrated from OSF to a storage solution that is not openly available, project contributors need to be informed (preferably before the move) and given access to the files on the new storage location.
- Do I need to make changes to my publication that refers to OSF?
- If you have used the DOI or the OSF link (https://osf.io/...) to cite the project, no changes are needed to the publication. The DOI will remain functional. The OSF link will remain functional as long as OSF supports the viewing of completed projects. If your content is moved, a redirect to the new location is needed, but no changes to be publication are required.
Further reading
More tips
- How to preserve and share data in data repositories? (Publish)
- RSpace: how do I use this ELN? (Research integrity & ethics)
- Zenodo: step-by-step guide for preservation and sharing of research data and software (Publish)
Last modified Oct. 5, 2026, 2:49 p.m.