This project has resources, templates, and demonstrated practices to help you begin your OSF journey. Still have questions? Contact support@osf.io to discuss more OSF features. Structure with OSF Projects and Components ------------------------------------------------ [OSF projects][1] are the largest, most general and flexible form of categorization that OSF supports. A project can be an experiment, a lab group, or a paper—anything that has contributing members and files or explanatory texts/images. The object that you are exploring now, https://osf.io/yaqe8/, is an OSF project. The OSF project is a top-level object, and the only the beginning of OSF's data dynamic management capabilities. Within each project, you can create components. [Components are sub-projects][2] below the top-level project, which share the same features as OSF projects. Components help organize your research and create hierarchy within your parent project. Utilizing components is an excellent way to structure your content, distribute your storage needs, and clarify your data types and purposes. A component's privacy settings, contributors, tags, wikis, add-ons, files, and storage are separate from the parent project, so even the most elaborate collaborations can customize the structure to meet their needs. OSF Templates and Forks ------------------------------- You have already noticed that this project is forked from previous work. [Forking a project][10] creates a copy of an existing project and its components, including other materials included in the project. You can also duplicate only the structure of the project and its components by using the ['Duplicate as Template'][11] option. In this project, there are basic templates and resources for several use cases found on OSF; research teams coordination, data management planning, electronic lab notebooks, and even course management can be facilitated by the OSF tools that are available for researchers, labs, centers, and institutions that support stronger collaborations. Interested in starting your own OSF project with one of the templates? Create your own duplicate the template or fork the project to get started! OSF Wiki -------- Like this one, [the wiki is a great way to orient contributors][3] and readers to your project and content. Even if you have many components, files to embed, or even parallel OSF projects, the wiki can be used to describe your work, link to more resources, or include contact information. The wiki supports collaborative editing using [Markdown][4] and [MathJax][5] syntax, meaning your entire team can work on it at the same time. You can also make wikis publicly editable to allow visitors to your project to contribute. All versions of a wiki page are saved, so you can always go back to previous versions and compare current wikis with previous iterations. You can also create multiple wikis to describe different elements of your project. OSF Add-ons ----------- Add-ons are a way to connect the most commonly used storage and citation Cloud providers directly to your projects on OSF. Connecting an add-on provides an uninterrupted workflow experience across the entire research lifecycle while giving you and your collaborators a way to manage, access, and share all of your data from one place. There are two add-on varieties enabled on OSF; storage add-ons and citation add-ons. **Storage add-ons:** Already utilize Google Drive or GitHub for your work? You won't need to duplicate your effort to connect them to your projects on OSF! [OSF has integrations with 11 storage providers][6] that make it easy to access files stored on other tools directly within your OSF project space. We are always working with research institutions and communities globally to develop new add-ons and features. To review features of the current storage add-ons, [see our feature comparison chart][7]. Don't see your favorite storage provider or crucial feature for your project? Are you interested in learning more about developing potential OSF add-ons? Contact support@osf.io to discuss with the OSF team, and reach out to your institutional research support resources to determine if they have storage options that you can take advantage of. **Citation add-ons:** Have you already conducted an extensive literature review as part of your project? No need to include your references in documents or in the wiki; you can connect them all directly with your project or components through [Zotero][8] or [Mendeley][9]! [1]: https://help.osf.io/hc/en-us/articles/360019737594-Create-a-Project [2]: https://help.osf.io/hc/en-us/articles/360019930313-Link-tolp.osf.io/hc/en-us/articles/360019737914-Fork-a-Project [3]: https://help.osf.io/hc/en-us/sections/360003569274-Wikia-Project [4]: https://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/ [5]: https://www.mathjax.org/ [6]: https://help.osf.io/hc/en-us/sections/360003623833-Storage-add-ons [7]: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1TlxeshcWd1HpKDoI2jF-m8iolcXMsbehpb-o1IZ9Ez4/edit?usp=sharing [8]: https://help.osf.io/hc/en-us/articles/360019929913-Connect-Zotero-to-a-Project [9]: https://help.osf.io/hc/en-us/articles/360019929893-Connect-Mendeley-to-a-Project [10]: https://help.osf.io/hc/en-us/articles/360019737914-Fork-a-Project [11]: https://help.osf.io/hc/en-us/articles/360019930093-Create-a-Project-from-a-Template#Use-a-public-project-as-a-template [12]: https://help.osf.io/hc/en-us/articles/360019930313-Link-to-a-Project