OpenWetWare:Nature Methods article

16 days till submission!

Title

OpenWetWare Protocols: an open-access online protocol resource for everyone.

Manuscript Type

Brief correspondence - 400 words maximum

Authors

Corresponding Author: James Hadfield, CRUK Cambridge Research Institute, Robinson Way, Cambridge CB2 0RE. Tel: +44 (0)1223 404250; Fax: +44 (0)1223 404208; email: james.hadfield@cancer.org.uk.
OpenWetWare steering committee: http://openwetware.org/wiki/OpenWetWare:Steering_committee_members

Note: This paper is being written and edited by any number of authors and the submission will be made after at least three OWW steering committee members agree it is ready. I am pretty sure this is not something that has been done before and we would like to be the first to use this method of writing and submission. It could prove a very useful way of creating methods and review articles.

Article

OpenWetWare (OWW) [1] is a wiki (see box 1) promoting the sharing of information, know-how, wisdom and experience among scientific researchers and groups who are working in the biological sciences. OpenWetWare provides a place for groups and individuals to organize their own information and collaborate with others easily and efficiently. This article was written collaboratively on the OpenWetWare wiki (see url of this page). OpenWetware allows anyone to view the site and but requires registration to edit.

OpenWetWare: Protocols is a section of the OWW environment dedicated to protocols ranging from basic miniprep to microarray labelling; BLAST to x-ray crystallography model-building and anything else users care to add or edit.
Protocols are available on OWW in two basic forms; individual and consensus.

Protocols are written in a style very similar to Nature Methods 'recipe book' and can be easily printed for the bench. They are intended for scientists who have relevant basic technical expertise but are unfamiliar with the experiment. They begin with a brief abstract followed by separate sections for Materials, Protocol, Critical steps, Troubleshooting, and Notes.

Protocols have a similar structure to a standard methods article or Individual protocols are specific to the lab or person who wrote them, and are not necessarily written to be easily followed by researchers unfamiliar with them. In practice, however, most protocols are written to be shared within at least a lab group, and so are often clear enough to provide a useful information resource. Consensus protocols are a not a new idea [2], and would be created when more than one individual protocol is available to choose from. They are the consensus opinion on how to perform an experimental procedure. All individual protocols should be referenced in the consensus protocol and vice versa. A consensus protocol has a self-nominated editor or even editorial board to but anyone can edit, add notes, suggest alternative regents or equipment and even indicate pricing information.

Box1

What is a wiki: A wiki is a type of website that allows the visitors themselves to easily add, remove and otherwise edit and change content with or without the need for registration. This makes wikis an effective tool for collaborative authoring with the most famous wiki being the online encyclopedia Wikipedia. The open style of wikis allowing any user to edit most pages is a cause for concern for most people new to wikis [3]. (something about how the benefits outweigh the risks?)

References

1. OpenWetWare: http://openwetware.org/

2. ISBN:0-87969-577-3
3. ISBN:020171499X