OSF Preprints

🌐 Website: https://osf.io/preprints
📍 Country: USA
📂 Affiliation: Center for Open Science (COS)
📚 Area(s) of Study (AOS): Multidisciplinary – psychology, social sciences, education, engineering, biology, health sciences, and more

🧠 Introduction

OSF Preprints is a free and open-source preprint infrastructure provided by the Center for Open Science (COS). It supports the rapid sharing of scholarly manuscripts across disciplines and powers numerous community-driven preprint services such as PsyArXiv, SocArXiv, and engrXiv. OSF Preprints emphasizes transparency, reproducibility, and openness in research and is widely used in social sciences and beyond.

Authors can submit directly to OSF Preprints or to one of the many partner platforms it hosts. Submissions are not peer-reviewed but are publicly posted after a basic moderation check.

🛠️ Key Features & Functions

• Free to use and open-source

• Powered by the OSF infrastructure with persistent URLs and metadata

• Supports over 30 discipline-specific preprint services (e.g., PsyArXiv, SocArXiv, LawArXiv)

• Optional file versioning and project linking

• Metadata-rich submission (title, abstract, tags, disciplines, license, etc.)

• Easy linking to datasets, code, and preregistrations

• Integrates with other tools like Zotero, GitHub, Figshare

⚖️ Editorial & Ethical Standards

• Submissions undergo basic moderation for spam and inappropriate content

• No formal peer review process

• Supports open science best practices: transparency, open data, and reproducibility

• Author chooses license type (e.g., CC-BY, CC0)

• COS maintains community standards but does not intervene in scientific disputes

💬 User Experience & Community Feedback

Strength: Flexible and researcher-driven infrastructure trusted by open science communities

• Supports multidisciplinary research and custom branding for niche fields
• Clean interface and user control over project linking and metadata
• Fast and seamless upload process

Criticism:

• Some users report inconsistent visibility depending on the partner platform
• No integrated commenting or post-publication feedback tools
• Interface is minimal but lacks advanced discovery features

🗣️ Have experience with this platform? Help others decide.

Share your insights in the comments below. Tell us:

• 💲 Cost – Was it truly free? Any hidden charges or integration fees?
• ⏱️ Posting Speed – Was your preprint published quickly after submissio
• 🌍 Visibility – Did your preprint gain views, downloads, or media attentio
• 🤝 Community Interaction – Did you receive feedback, comments, or engagement
• ⚠️ Concerns – Anything unexpected or frustrating during submission or post-publication?
• ⭐ Your overall rating – Click here to submit

Your feedback helps other researchers make smarter, more confident decisions. Thank you for contributing to a more transparent publishing community!

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The information presented in this review is compiled from publicly available third-party sources, including the platform’s official website, publisher documentation, and independent directories (e.g., COPE, Crossref, ASAPbio). This review is intended for informational purposes only and does not represent the views or official statements of the platform or its affiliates.

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