Due to budgetary constraints, the protocols.io premium service provided by the BIH QUEST Center for all Charité and BIH users will end on December 31, 2024. 

To address questions how these changes may affect your use of the licensed features, we've provided relevant information below. This outlines the potential impact and suggests any actions you may need to take to adapt to the changes.

protocols.io is free to read and free to publish. For all users or groups who rely on the premium features, the option remains to purchase premium access via a variety of tailored offerings, including paying per user or per workspace, which can be requested as a line item on a grant application.

protocols.io offers waivers for individuals and research groups that are on the cutting edge of research, but need help with funding. Their Academic Research Waiver is a program for those who cannot attain premium access and have plans to publish their research upon completion. See here for more information.

If, after reading our FAQs, you still have questions related to the protocols.io platform, please contact info@protocols.io 

For questions related to the discontinuation of this premium service for Charité/BIH users, you can contact René Bernard: rene.bernard@charite.de

FAQs

  • The protocols.io premium license is ending - What does this mean for me?

    From Jan 1, 2025, every protocols.io user with a Charité or BIH email address will be reverted to the basic protocols.io account settings which includes only two private protocols. 

  • What does this mean for users with two or more private protocols?

    If you have more than two private protocols, please rest assured that none of them will be deleted. However, if you have more than two private protocols, you will not be able to create any additional new protocol drafts. Users will need to either publicly share all but one of those private protocols, or delete all but one protocol and will then be able to create a new protocol draft. 

  • What if I need more than two private protocols to include links to the materials and methods in a research manuscript that I'm submitting?

    Please note that if a protocol has a reserved DOI, it will not count as a private file as we will see that you intend to make it public. Therefore, if you have multiple protocols that all correspond to one single manuscript that you plan to submit, you can create more than two protocols as long as you reserve DOIs for them as you create them. 

  • Are there other restrictions with basic accounts?

    Yes, the workspace has a limit of up to 100 MB. In general, this is sufficient as protocol files are rarely large and linking files from external sources is possible. But you can contact info@protocols.io if you think this will be an issue for you. Individual exceptions can be made if necessary for some justifiable reason.

  • What happens now to any private workspaces that I created or I am a member of?

    These workgroups will remain with all existing admin rights. However, all members will be limited by the new restrictions of number of private files and capacity. If you have external collaborators who are members of these workspaces, you should inform them about this coming change.

  • How do I distinguish between a private and a public protocol?

    Please look in the file manager of your workspace. Public protocols have a blue icon, while private protocols have an orange icon. 

  • How can I export copies of my private protocols?

    In any workspace where you have created protocols that you would like to export a local copy of, select the protocol (or protocols), then click Export. There are options to either print the protocol or to export to JSON or PDF format. Please note that to export to JSON, you need to use the protocols.io open API. 

  • Is the free version of protocols.io still useful?

    Yes, it is! The major benefit is that protocols can be shared publicly and a DOI can be obtained and linked to from your research paper’s materials and methods sections. All protocols are versionable dynamic documents. Sharing your protocols this way creates living documents that better capture the evolution of methods development and are very useful to the research community. Additionally, as these public protocols are always available open access, anyone can browse and select from the more than 19,000 public protocols available in the repository to either run or adapt by generating their own forked version. For users primarily interested in protocol reproducibility while publicly sharing their protocols, the platform protocols.io remains one of the best solutions that currently exists.

  • What if I still have questions?

    Some questions may already be answered on the protocols.io help site. 
    For anything related to the protocols.io platform, please contact info@protocols.io
    For anything related to the ending of this premium service for Charité or BIH users and future developments ensuring method reproducibility, please contact René Bernard.