Go to Tufts OSF Institutions Page
The Open Science Framework (OSF) is an online research collaboration platform that allows you to bring together your files that are stored in Box, AWS, GitHub, and more. Access to your OSF space can be granted to partners inside and outside of Tufts, and when you are done you can publish your work to the web.
Tufts belongs to OSF Institutions, which means your OSF projects will be discoverable on the Tufts institutional landing page. Just sign into OSF with your Tufts credentials, and choose Tufts as the Affiliated Institution for your project.
Create an account
If you do not already have an OSF account:
- Go to OSF
- Select "Sign In" in upper right corner
- Select "Sign in via institution" then select "Tufts University" from the dropdown menu
- Sign in with your Tufts credentials
If you already have an OSF account, you can link your account to your Tufts credentials:
- Go to "My Profile" and select "Edit your profile"
- Under Account Settings, enter your Tufts email address. You'll be sent a confirmation email to your Tufts account
- Follow the instructions in the email to merge your accounts
Terms of Use and related policies
- All users of OSF agree to the OSF Terms of Use
- When using any Tufts service, users must comply with the university's Standards of Professional Conduct and Integrity, the Information Stewardship Policy, and all other applicable Tufts policies.
- As provided in the Information Stewardship Policy and the Tufts Cloud Computing Services Policy, users are required to responsibly and securely maintain and use institutional data that they store on the OSF and any services that are integrated with it like the Tufts Box service, sync onto any device or share through the service.
Prohibited uses of OSF
OSF is not intended for use with sensitive data.
Do not upload to OSF any research data that includes personal information, even when using the private setting. Research data must be fully anonymized so that it neither identifies nor may be used to identify an individual.
OSF is not approved for use for data subject to HIPAA, FERPA or the GDPRs for the European Economic Area or the UK.
Before uploading data, consider whether the data is subject to any restrictions under any agreements or whether the use of OSF will be consistent with your study’s IRB obligations.
OSF will remove any data which violates its Terms of Use.
Deleting data
Deleting Files
- OSF Guide to Deleting Files. Deleted files cannot be recovered.
To delete a file, go to the "Files" tab at the top of the page and locate the file. Click on the 3 vertical dots next to the file name, then select "Delete" from the options menu. A dialogue box will open, asking you to confirm the deletion. Click "Delete" again.
Deleting Projects
- OSF Guide to Deleting Projects. Only administrators can delete entire projects. Deleting projects is irreversible and will delete all files and data within the project.
To delete an entire project, first go to the project. In the top right corner, click on "Settings". Click on the red "Delete project" button at the bottom of the page. A dialogue box will appear asking you to confirm the deletion. Type the verification word into the text box, then click "Delete".
Deleting Sensitive Data
OSF will automatically remove any data which violates its Terms of Use. This includes data which violates confidentiality obligations (including personally identifiable information), harmful or derogatory data, data which infringes on intellectual property or copyright, and data which violates state or federal laws.
If you realize you have unintentionally uploaded sensitive data and OSF has not yet removed it, please remove it immediately following the steps above for Deleting files and Deleting projects.