FAQs for contributors

Answer Registered users can submit protocols by selecting the link on the homepage to ‘Submit your protocol’. This will take you to the protocol submission page which includes textboxes to input your Protocol title and Initiating author name, and an Overview, Background information, Materials/Equipment, any Units, terms or definitions (for the glossary ), step by step Procedure and any additional information. Once you have finished entering text and images into the text boxes, hit submit and your protocol will be submitted to the editorial board. You will be contacted once your protocol has been reviewed and is ready for publication on the Prometheus Protocols site (see below).

Answer The authors’ name will be listed within the protocol as the ‘Initiating author’ or listed as a contributor to the page at the base of the page if they themselves have edited that protocol. By clicking the name of interest, you will be directed to that authors’ ‘User Information’ page. From here, you can send them a message to their Prometheus Protocols mailbox, however you will not be automatically entitled to see their email address.

All protocols submitted to Prometheus Protocols are reviewed by experts in the field prior to publication. This includes members of the editorial board and external reviewers solicited during the review process. We encourage users to update protocols as they are refined in the lab or in the field. A comments section is available for users to provide feedback if additional details are required or if errors are  observed.

Answer Contributors to Prometheus Protocols should:

• Identify themselves by their real name
• Be considerate and respectful
• Be constructive (ie don’t be evil)
• Be accurate, citing reasons and references where possible
• Highlight areas of the site which need attention
• Respect the contributions of others – focus on the content not the contributor
• Only post content that you have the rights to provide and to allow others to use in accordance with the terms of this site.

Contributors to Prometheus Protocols should not:

• Defame
• Post statements that contain false or misleading statements
• Infringe rights of others, including copyright confidentiality and other intellectual property rights.

Answer After pressing ‘SUBMIT’ your protocol will be sent to the editor responsible for the topic area you designated your protocol to fit into. They will endeavour to confirm receipt of your protocol within a few days, before editing it to meet template guidelines and reviewing it for appropriateness, safety, clarity of expression and duplication. Protocols assessed as worthy will then be posted on the Prometheus Protocols, and the Editor will email you to inform you your protocol is live. We’ll make every effort to make this happen quickly, but in some cases it may take a couple of weeks, please be patient during this time.

Answer You may request an opportunity to edit the existing protocol to include your methods. Alternately you might choose to create a new protocol but refer to or use a hyperlink to link your protocol to the existing method. If the differences between the two approaches are small, then the -comment’ feature at the base of the protocol can be used to generate constructive debate over the posted approach.

Answer Yes, as long as you fully acknowledge the linked website and ensure that users can tell they will be taken to an external site. Links to other sites must be relevant to your protocol.