protocols.io
What is protocols.io?
The protocols.io platform is a free and open access repository for recording and sharing detailed up-to-date research methods and protocols. It allows researchers to easily create, edit, share, and get credit for their protocols, and provides an open access hub for scientists to communicate improvements and corrections to scientific methods.
The platform is useful for researchers in any discipline that uses a step-by-step methodology, such as biology, life science fields, medical science, health science, chemistry, neuroscience, engineering, data science, and computational science.
Features
protocols.io's editor provides a structured way to create and modify a protocol in minutes. They can be made from scratch or uploaded and easily converted from an existing Word or PDF document.
Protocols and changes to them can be published for everyone to see or shared with selected individuals. Updates to protocols can be captured in new versions. Publicly published protocols can be assigned DOIs, which are then easily discoverable and citable in your publication or independently as a separate research output.
You can find more information about the features of protocols.io here.
Limitation
The basic account is limited to 2 private protocols. Once a private protocol is published, you can create another private protocol.
Benefits
- Protocols are dynamic and interactive, helping with collaboration within a group or among co-authors outside of the university
- Continuous improvement and development: Users with access to a protocol can update, annotate, copy or fork it
- Research groups can organise and archive their methods ensuring that knowledge is not lost as trainees move on
- You can create different levels of access for any protocol
- Interoperability with GitHub, OSF, RSpace, SciNote, and LabArchives
- protocols.io renders in most browsers and devices – no apps or plugins needed. You can run the protocol step-by-step alongside your experiment, save a run record, and safeguard it
- Connect your protocols.io account with your ORCID and information about your published protocols are automatically posted onto the Works section of your ORCID record
- Citing your published protocol in your publication can significantly shorten your method section, which then focuses on the broader level of applied methodology
- Receive and provide feedback via endorsement (Works for me) and commenting on steps
- Run mode permits to execute an entire protocol as checklist alongside your experiment so you know when each step was completed (https://www.protocols.io/help/run)
Video Tutorials
Video Tutorials
- Introduction to protocols.io [video 03:19]
- Create a new protocol [video 01:34]
- Create a new private protocol [step-by-step guide]
- How to bring structure to your research with protocols.io [video 19:31]
- Developing protocols with protocols.io [video 24:12]
- Exporting protocols and files [video 00:51]
- Publishing protocols [video 01:25]
- Publishing a Lab Protocol paper with PLOS ONE and protocols.io [video 1:00:13]
- Creating a new version of a protocol [video 01:23]
- Running protocols [video 01:35]
- Create a new group/lab workspace [video 00:31]
protocols.io FAQ
protocols.io FAQ
Who can see my protocols?
Private protocols are only accessible to the creator and whoever the creator chooses to give access to. protocols.io will only access your protocols when asked to do so. Shared protocols in private workspaces cannot be accessed or shared outside the group by anyone else.
What happens when I update my published protocol that I linked with a DOI in a publication?
Often protocols evolve further or need smaller corrections and adjustments, requiring creation of a new public version. Users accessing the protocol via the publication will be presented with to the older version together a with notification that a newer version of this protocol exists.
Who really has the copyright for a certain method?
Can I enter previously published methods? Yes, you can. Recipes and cookbooks are not subject to copyright. They are statements of fact/instructions, and therefore protocol steps and materials can be republished outside of the original journal. (However, please don't include direct copies of figures, tables, discussion, etc. from published articles - unless the article is fully open access with a CC-BY license, as this would be a breach of copyright.)
If you build upon, repurpose, and/or reuse text from a published protocol or research article, please ensure that you cite and attribute correctly all original source documents. If protocols.io becomes aware of overlap with any previously published work that has not been attributed, the author will be contacted with the request to include the citation in a new version.
More Q&A: https://www.protocols.io/help/faq
protocols.io Reward Program
protocols.io 1.000 € Reward Program
This reward of €1,000 each was awarded four times in 2023 for newly created and publicly shared protocols by BIH or Charité members. The authors had to actively apply and the protocols had to meet certain quality criteria.
The winners can be found here.
Teaching: "Write my Protocol" Workshop
During this hands-on workshop, the participants work with expert instructors to write a reusable step-by-step protocol, or improve an existing protocol for a procedure that they perform in their own research. They will complete an exercise to quickly structure their protocol and use an online protocol repository to enhance readability.
You can find more information here.
