Scholars increasingly work on collaborative research projects. Collaborative projects often bring together partners across disciplines, institutions, and sectors. These projects present opportunities for innovation but also raise challenges for the development of efficient and effective workflows and the management of data.

There are many tools available that can be used to support these types of projects. University business conducted using University tools is in compliance with University regulations and policy. Review the Collaboration Tools Matrix to ensure you using tools in compliance with University policies for Data Security.

Collaborative Tools

  • Open Science Framework

    Project Management Tool
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    • OSF is a free and open source project management tool that supports researchers throughout their entire project lifecycle.
    • Manage which parts of a project are public or private, making it easier to collaborate and share with the community or just your team. Collaborate with colleagues around the world, whether or not they are at Harvard, and access your research after you leave.
    • Built-in project management tools support all stages of coursework, research, and other scholarly projects.
    • You can upload anything — datasets, documents, slides, readings, syllabi, datasets, codebases — and create unique identifiers for each.
    • Easy-to-use dashboard allows you to manage settings like version control, public/private sharing, and 3rd party integrations. OSF connects to many other products including Dropbox, GitHub, Google Drive, Zotero, and more.
    • OSF is recognized by major funding bodies (e.g., NIH, NSF, etc.) as a data repository for sharing research materials.
    • Harvard is a member of OSF for Institutions allowing Harvard affiliates to create an account or login to OSF using their Harvard Key and public OSF projects from Harvard affiliates will be featured on Harvard's OSF institutional page.
    • Get started and signup for a free OSF account!

     


  • protocols.io

    Optimize Your Research Methods
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    • protocols.io is a collaborative platform and preprint server for methods and protocols
    • Allows you to create step-by-step detailed, interactive, and dynamic protocols that can be run on mobile or web.
    • This platform is helpful for researchers in any discipline that uses a step-by-step methodology, including life sciences, engineering, chemistry, data science, and computational social sciences.
    • Get started and sign up for a free account at protocols.io"!
    • protocols.io Premium is available free to Harvard Medical School, Harvard School of Dental Medicine and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health users. Find out more and claim your premium account.

     


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