Accelerating scientific discovery through open, versioned, and DOI-indexed scholarly dissemination.
OSF Preprints, managed by the Center for Open Science (COS), represents a pivotal infrastructure in the 2026 scholarly landscape, facilitating the rapid dissemination of research findings before formal peer review. Built on the Open Science Framework (OSF) core, its architecture utilizes a modular 'Waterbutler' storage abstraction layer, allowing researchers to connect disparate storage providers (Dropbox, AWS S3, Google Drive) directly to their preprint records. In 2026, it serves as a central hub for 'Decentralized Science' (DeSci) movements, offering persistent identifiers (DOIs via DataCite) and deep integration with OSF Registries for pre-registered reports. The platform's technical stack is optimized for high-performance metadata harvesting via OAI-PMH, ensuring that uploaded work is instantly discoverable by Google Scholar, Crossref, and other major indexing services. Its market position is solidified by its non-profit status and commitment to the 'TOP' (Transparency and Openness Promotion) guidelines, providing a critical alternative to commercial, paywalled academic infrastructure. The platform supports community-led branded preprint servers (e.g., PsyArXiv, SocArXiv), enabling niche-specific governance while sharing a robust, unified technical backbone.
Automated integration with DataCite to assign a permanent Digital Object Identifier to every preprint submission.
AI-powered research intelligence and collaborative reference management for the global scientific community.
The universal standard for persistent researcher identification and scholarly interoperability.
The open-access platform decentralizing scientific publishing with blockchain and AI.
The open-source repository and collaboration hub for the entire research lifecycle.
Verified feedback from the global deployment network.
Post queries, share implementation strategies, and help other users.
Uses a logical file structure that allows users to upload revisions while maintaining a publicly accessible history of changes.
Supports the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting for automated crawling by libraries and search engines.
Graph-based internal architecture that links preprints to raw data, code, and preregistrations hosted on OSF Projects.
API-based connections to external providers like Box, Dropbox, and Amazon S3.
Extensible workflow engine allowing community managers to approve/reject submissions based on custom criteria.
Real-time tracking of downloads, views, and social mentions through the OSF dashboard.
Traditional peer review can take 6-12 months, risking the loss of priority on a discovery.
Registry Updated:2/7/2026
Funders often require immediate open-access availability of research.
Researchers want community feedback before submitting to high-impact journals.