The Open Science Framework (OSF), a key tool that DUL has supported for project management and data workflows, will be changing their service offerings. OSF Project workflows are being phased out between November 2026 and February 2027. After February 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, but you will not be able to make any changes. OSF will continue to support OSF Registries and OSF Preprints. See the OSF Changes Page to learn more. If you would like to discuss transitioning away from OSF for your workflows or get help finding additional tools, please contact us at datamanagement@duke.edu
Consulting on workflows
We can help at any stage of a research project to help you think through the organization, documentation, and structure of your workflow. We can suggest:
- Recommendations for good data management practices including folder structures, file naming, version control, and storage and backup strategies
- Tools available to support and implement your workflow
- Considerations for documentation and metadata
- Strategies for implementing reproducible research practices into your workflow
Duke Tools to help
OSF: OSF can be used in your research processes for registering and pre-registration of studies. OSF Registries is a free, open-access platform for creating and publishing structured records of research plans, outputs, and outcomes. Duke is a member of OSF Institutions, which means you can sign in to OSF using your institutional credentials and affiliate your research activity with Duke. Learn more about OSF on Our OSF Guide. (Note: OSF is phasing out OSF Projects at the end of 2026, see the OSF Changes Page to learn more.)
LabArchives: LabArchives, an Electronic Research Notebook, is available to the entire Duke community. Contact ASIST (ASIST@duke.edu) for support on best practices in data management within LabArchives including notebook organization and training and consultation on using LabArchives.
Duke GitLab: Duke GitLab is a version control system operated by Duke’s Office of Information Technology, which has developed additional privacy and security guardrails for Duke research workflows. Version control systems help research teams track changes to files over multiple iterations, authors, and branches of development, and more robust services like GitLab include additional project management tools like bug reporting and task assignment. To learn more about Duke GitLab (and how it compares to another popular version control system, GitHub), visit Duke Research Computing’s Research Toolkit on GitLab.
