Open Science Platform for CPF

Organisation and developement of CPF

CPF is an open-science project, which means that it provides access to all resources, including the programming code. Furthermore, the code can be improved and developed by anyone who wishes to contribute to the project. To allow the open access and community-based development, we have built an open-science platform that connects several tools: website, online forum, GitHub and OSF.

The structure and tools of the CPF's open-science framework

The central element is the project’s website (www.cpfdata.com) that contains all important information, documentation and the latest major version of the code. The website also includes a forum. The forum (www.cpfdata.com/forum) serves general communication, discussions and suggestions related to the code. It may also be used for asking questions and providing answers.

GitHub (www.github.com) is precisely oriented at the development of the CPF code. GitHub is a code hosting platform for collaborations in code development, especially useful for managing open-source projects. It allows users to access the main and alternative versions of the code, share their modifications, track changes and continuously integrate them into consecutive versions. Extensions, improvements or alternative versions of the code can be offered by all researchers and programmers who register free of charge at the GitHub platform. Notably, all changes are recorded, providing version control functionality.

Open Science Framework (OSF; www.osf.io) is one of the most popular open-science platforms, which facilitates open collaboration in research. OSF integrates many tools and services which support managing, organising, documenting and sharing all aspects of a project. Among others, OSF allows pre-registering studies, storing code and data; it is linked to preprint services and many scientific platforms. It facilitates collaborative workflow on projects, allows to document the work and progress. Similarly to GitHub, OSF uses a version control system, so all changes to the project are recorded. OSF allows additionally to register the project at each stage and creates an archival version of the project with a unique hyperlink. All materials can be registered this way, receiving permanent links and DOIs. Importantly, OSF includes a GitHub add-on which directly links files stored at GitHub repository into the OSF project. This way, changes to the code can be introduced either through GitHub or OSF. They are also synchronised so that the code at the OSF is always up to date.

Links to the resources: