OSF and Infrastructure Enabling Efficacy in Researcher Practices

Libraries now play a vital role throughout the research lifecycle, guiding scholars from initial project planning and data management to publication and preservation. As research grows more complex, librarians and support professionals must navigate a dizzying array of tools, best practices, and disciplinary conventions. In this landscape, the Open Science Framework (OSF) is a flexible, community-driven platform capable of supporting researchers at any stage of their research project.

This presentation will detail how OSF’s features can enhance library consultation and support services and strengthen partnerships across campus. From helping researchers organize projects and ensuring data integrity, to curating metadata standards and fostering collaboration, librarians can leverage the OSF to streamline workflows and improve the overall research experience. Through concrete examples, we will show how advocating for OSF adoption not only diversifies a library’s service portfolio, but also positions it as an essential catalyst for transparent, reproducible scholarship.

Looking ahead, we will explore OSF’s trajectory, focusing on how user feedback informs its ongoing development. Attendees will learn how community-driven input, strategic collaborations with other platforms, and integration with external repositories contribute to new OSF features and refinements. By understanding these influences, research support staff can actively participate in guiding OSF’s evolution, ensuring it remains aligned with institutional needs and researcher demands.

This session offers both practical guidance on what OSF can do today, and an outlook on its potential tomorrow—empowering libraries to help shape the future of scholarly communication.