How-Tos and FAQs for OSF Institutions
There's been a change in staffing or contact information at my institution. How do I let you know?
Please contact us at institutions@cos.io to update your information.
I need some specific metrics that either aren't in the metrics reports/dashboard or there isn't another report until next quarter. Can you help?
We may be able to provide details other than what is provided in the metrics reports. We do not store long-term usage metrics (e.g. downloads or views for more than the past month), but we may be able to create a custom report about details of user accounts or OSF content. Contact us at institutions@cos.io to start a discussion.
Can you provide help with a training or demo at my institution?
Yes! We are happy to schedule a virtual session of up to an hour going over the basics of OSF use or the Institutions membership. In addition, you may find existing videos [[here]] that are helpful for more immediate needs. If you are interested in more substantial training, you can take advantage of your OSF membership to get a discount on our training services.
I've done a search on my institution home page and I see something wrong or something is missing. What should I do?
Contact us at institutions@cos.io and let us know what you are seeing.
How can I get some OSF-branded promotional materials for an event I am hosting?
Check out our page on OSF swag and fill out the form to start a request.
I need to update the logo or text on our institution page? How can I do that?
Upload the logo files to this folder and send an email to institutions@cos.io letting us know the file is updated or just email with any updated information.
There are users of OSF from our institution who are not yet affiliated. Can you help us reach out to them?
Yes! We can send an email to any user with an account on the OSF affiliated with the email domain for your institution. We have templates of messaging you can use to craft your message if you would like. Just send us the text you want sent out (to institutions@cos.io) and we can handle the rest.
How do I find information about our institution's service agreement or renewal date?
We don't have access to any administrative online at this time. Email institutions@cos.io at any time to review any of the details of your membership.
What benefits come with an OSF Institutions Membership? Are there additional benefits at other membership levels?
See our page on OSF Institutional Member Basics to get an overview of membership benefits and additional available services.
Does COS or OSF have a policy or statement on...?
Several policies or statements are available on this site or on osf.io:
- Accessibility Statement and Conformance Report
- Information Security Overview
- Backup and Preservation Statement
- Data Breach Response Plan
- Terms of Use
- Privacy Policy
If you are looking for another specific policy, check the COS page on Compliance and Standards or please contact us at institutions@cos.io.
A researcher at my institution needs more storage for their project. Is that possible?
Yes! Aside from the usage of storage add-ons to configure external storage, OSF can add additional storage to specific projects for a cost recovery fee. We have a page outlining the basic costs for different levels of storage that can be helpful in estimating cost or writing a budget justification for a grant submission. We will work with you and your member to come up with a reasonable cost for additional storage. Please contact us at institutions@cos.io to start a discussion.
I found an bug on the OSF. How can I report it?
You can report bugs to the OSF suppport desk, or to instituions@cos.io. Please include as much information as you can about what you are experiencing. In particular, date and time, browser software and operating system, and whether or not you were logged into OSF at the time can all be helpful information to provide.
Can we connect directly to the OneDrive or other storage add-on our institution uses?
Your users should be able to configure access to your institution's storage system if it is already included in our add-ons list, however, some institutional IT departments require extra steps to allow specific access from the OSF. We are happy to provide any information needed to guarantee this access. Please contact us at institutions@cos.io to talk through the process of getting set up. You may want to reach out to your campus IT office first to find out any specific information that may be needed from us.
I don't see users' departments in my metrics dashboard. How can I get them added?
The information that we have about your users' institutional identities comes from your own authentication service. In some cases, we can get additional information, like the users department or user status (e.g. student, faculty, staff, etc.) if your institution provides it. If you would like to explore whether or not it is possible, please contact us at institutions@cos.io. We may need to follow up in a conversation with the department at your institution that runs the authentication service.
Our institutional login isn't working. How can I report it?
You can report an outage like this to the OSF support desk or to institutions@cos.io. Please include the time and date you experienced an issue, the browser and operating system you are using, and a screenshot of any error message you see after the failed login attempt.
If you are interested in seeing help guides intended for general OSF users, please see our OSF support center Help Guides