OSF Collection Moderation

The following is a Table of Contents that links directly to specific sections within the guide.

• Overview 
• Accessing Moderation Dashboard
• Dashboard Features
  • All Items
  • Moderation
  • Notification Settings
  • Sort
• Moderation Decisions 
  • Email Summaries 
  • Accepting and Rejecting Submissions
  • Forced Withdrawal
• Moderator Management
  • Overview 
  • Add a Moderator
    • Username 
    • Email 

Overview 

OSF Collections a pay-for-service tool designed for funders, journals, societies, communities, organizations, and other groups in need of building and searching collections of related OSF projects.

Accessing Moderator Dashboard

Each collection has a unique URL. Enter the URL to the registry’s discovery page (i.e., https://osf.io/collections/metascience). 

To access the moderator dashboard: 

1. Go to the sidebar and select “Collections” for the dropdown 
2. Select “Moderation” from the dropdown

Moderator Dashboard Features

Moderators can follow the status of content associated with the service within each registry’s moderation dashboard.  Each dashboard includes 3 tabs (All Items, Moderators, and Settings) along with sorting options. 

All items

All projects or components that have requested to be added to the collection, segmented into four different statuses:

1. Pending- Items that have been requested to be associated with the collection by contributors, and are awaiting a decision by moderators.
2. Accepted - Public items that have been added by contributors and accepted for publication by moderators.
3. Rejected - Items that have been requested to be associated with the collection by contributors and have been rejected by moderators. The rejected project/component remains on the list for moderators and could be resubmitted by the contributor.
4. Withdrawn - Items that have been withdrawn by contributors (by removing or by making the project/component private) or force withdrawn by moderators

Moderation

A list of all moderators and administrators for the service. Only administrators can modify, add, and remove moderators.

Notification Settings

Notification frequency You can set the frequency of email notifications you will receive for requested additions and removals. 

1. Go to “Settings”
2. If you want to adjust your overall notifications for OSF projects you are included in, select the highlighted text “User settings”

3. You will be taken to the notification settings page, scroll to the bottom of the page to the section “Configure Notification Preferences” 
4. You can use the dropdown to set your notification frequency preferences for projects or preprints you create or are added to for “file updates” and the “preprint submissions updated”

For both notification options, you can select the frequencies: 

1. Daily - receive an email every day listing all the pending requests and removals
2. Instant - receive an email as soon as a request for association or a contributor removal has been sent and is in the pending queue 
3. Never - never receive an email

Sort

You can sort the items within the various categories (Pending, Accepted, Rejected, and Withdrawn) by Title (A-Z or Z-A) and Date (newest first or oldest first).

Moderation Decisions

When a contributor has requested the addition of a project/component to a collection, the request is sent into the pending section of the moderator dashboard where the moderator can decide whether to approve or reject it. 

Approved projects/components are shared immediately on the collection's public page. 

Rejected projects/components notifications are conveyed to the contributors. It is required that moderators comment on rejected projects/components so that contributors know why the project or component was not accepted and what revisions are needed for a potential resubmission.

Email Summaries

Moderators will receive an email from the OSF platform listing their pending additions to the collection site. They will also receive a list of any projects/components that have been removed from the collection site by contributors. The frequency of these email notifications can be changed to "daily", "instant", or "none". See Moderator Dashboard Features for more information. 

Accepting and Rejecting Submissions

Moderators can view, accept, and reject requested additions of projects or components. 

1. Open a pending item by clicking on its title. This will open the pending project/component in a different tab on your web browser.

2. Once the project window is open, you will see the green “Make Decision” button at the top of the page. Click the “Make Decision” button and a pop-up will appear.

3. A dropdown will appear, make a decision then click the “Submit” button.
   1. "Accept Request" then click the "Submit decision" button.
   2. "Reject Request" then click the “Submit decision” button.
      1. NOTE: A justification is required to Submit a "Reject" decision. Contributors will receive an email from OSF including moderator comments after the moderator made the decision has been submitted. The email will not include who the moderator(s) is(are) or which moderator made the decision. Comments will not be visible to the public, nor will a rejected status.

Forced Withdrawal

Moderators can forcibly withdraw a project/component if it does not conform to the community’s service moderation policy. Force withdrawing a project/component however will not remove it from the OSF completely, only the collection.

Withdraw an Item

Click on the title of the item from the “Accepted” tab on your moderator dashboard, this will open the accepted project/component in a different tab on your web browser.

Moderator Management

Overview

There are two roles available for community members that are maintaining the collection's content.

• Moderator - A moderator has access to the Collection’s moderation dashboard and has the ability to view, accept, reject, and remove associated projects/components. Moderators can only remove themselves from the moderation team.
• Administrator - Along with the moderator features, Admins can also add or remove new moderators and modify their permissions (moving moderators to admins or vice versa).  The first administrator for a registration service will be added by COS staff.

How to Add a Moderator

1. To access the moderation dashboard you need to go to your collection home page (e.g. https://osf.io/collections/[yourcollection]) When you are on the collection home, you will see a new option in the right hand navigation menu for “Collection”. Select “Moderation”.

2. Click the ‘Add moderator’ button.

3. A pop-up will appear where you will have two options: 

Username 

1. Enter the new moderator’s OSF name. NOTE: The new moderator must have an OSF account. Select the moderator’s name. 
2. Then click ‘Add’. 
3. Once they are added, you will see their name on the moderation overview page. You can select their permissions: ‘Moderator’ or ‘Admin’.

Email

1. Select ‘Invite moderator’ on the pop-up. NOTE: A new moderator does not need a pre-existing OSF account to be invited. However, the new moderator will need to register for an account. 
2. Next, fill in their name and email, and select their permissions: ‘Moderator’ or ‘Admin’.
3. Select “Add.” This will send an email to notify the newly added moderator/admin.

4. In the new tab, click on the green “Make decision” button at the top of the project/component page.

5. Select the “Withdraw Request” bubble. NOTE: A justification is required to Submit a “Withdrawn Request” decision.
6. Click on “Submit decision”.