Overview
If you work in a lab, it’s likely that your team has shared protocols that have been developed and refined to suit the research you’re doing.Sometimes, though, you’ll want to look at a standard protocol—a sort of “best practice”—for a lab method, or you’ll want to see if another group has developed a specialized protocol that you can learn from.
Activity
Find Laboratory Protocols
To find laboratory protocols through the UW Libraries, take a look at the Laboratory Protocols guide.Examples of resources on this guide include video journal articles from JoVE, standard protocols from SpringerNature Experiments, and the open access protocol-sharing site Protocols.io. (A lock icon next to a resource indicates that it is licensed (paid for) by the UW Libraries, and a UW NetID is required for access.)
- Use one of the resources to look for a protocol that relates to your research interests.
- Once you find a protocol, ask yourself if enough details are provided that you could carry out the protocol yourself. Is there a feature that lets you save and/or edit the protocol you’re looking at?
Finding Open Protocols
Before you go, take a look at Protocols.io. This is a good example of open science. Researchers freely share protocols they’ve developed and invite other researchers to try them and improve them.
If at some point you decide to share a protocol on this platform, notice that there’s a citation and DOI that you can cite on a CV or grant application to provide an example of your work
Reflection
- What are the advantages of making lab protocols publicly available?
- Which protocols that you found today might you use in the future?