We're migrating all Protocol Exchange content! All protocols posted on Protocol Exchange will be migrating onto the protocols.io platform (now also part of the Springer Nature family) in 2024. This will allow protocols to be accessible and available with all of the dynamic interactive functionality of protocols.io. All existing content is currently being moved onto protocols.io; If you have previously posted work on the Protocol Exchange, please check your email for a message from the Protocol Exchange Team.If you wish to submit a new protocol, you can do so on protocols.io please see this page for more information. If your protocol has not yet been migrated, but you want to add a new version, please contact [email protected] to request that this be expedited for you.
About Protocol Exchange
Protocol Exchange
Welcome to the Protocol Exchange from Nature Portfolio. The Protocol Exchange is an open repository for sharing scientific research protocols. These protocols are posted directly on the Protocol Exchange by authors and are made freely available to the scientific community for use and comment.
Contact
The editorial team can be contacted at [email protected].
Mission and scope
The Protocol Exchange strives to facilitate rapid and unencumbered distribution of protocols for scientific research. We welcome protocols from any branch of the natural sciences.
Protocols are not peer reviewed or edited by the Nature Protocols team, although they are screened for non-scientific content and for material that might pose a health or biosecurity risk. Authors are responsible for declaring any competing interests and ensuring they have complied with all relevant ethical regulations and declarations of consent if the protocol involves human participants. If a protocol relates to a clinical trial, we ask authors to include the trial registration number from ClinicalTrials.gov or an equivalent agency in the manuscript.
Sharing a protocol using the Protocol Exchange does not preclude publication of the material in another journal, but authors are advised to check relevant journal policies before posting on the Protocol Exchange.
Copyright
Protocols on the Exchange are published under a Creative Commons Attribution licence, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes have been made. The images or other third party material in the protocols are included in the protocol’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the protocol’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.
Relationship with Nature Portfolio
The Protocol Exchange forms part of Nature Portfolio's efforts to improve the reproducibility of published research results. Once a Nature Portfolio article is accepted for publication, the authors are encouraged to upload their protocols to the Exchange or any other open protocol sharing platform of their choice. Protocols deposited in Protocol Exchange are citable and can be linked from the published article.
Relationship to Nature Protocols and Nature Methods
Protocol Exchange and Nature Protocols are autonomous entities within Springer Nature. Protocol Exchange is an open resource where any protocol can be freely shared. In contrast, Nature Protocols is a peer-reviewed journal of protocols that have been carefully selected or commissioned by its editors. All protocols published in Nature Protocols have undergone rigorous peer-review and professional editing. Sharing of a protocol in Protocol Exchange does not preclude its submission or consideration at Nature Protocols. If you wish your protocol to be considered for inclusion in Nature Protocols, you should submit a Presubmission Enquiry to its editors through its online submission system.
Nature Methods is a forum for the publication of novel methods and significant improvements to tried-and-tested basic research techniques in the life sciences. Nature Methods articles are written in a narrative rather than a step-by-step format. Editors at Nature Methods may request authors to write up a step-by-step protocol based on the primary research article for deposition in the Protocol Exchange.
ISSN
The international standard serial number (ISSN) for Protocol Exchange is 2043-0116.
Citing protocols from the Protocol Exchange
Protocols should be cited as shown in the example below:
Kanoativ, M, Javeherian, S and Krylov, S. “Aptamer-facilitated Protein Isolation from Cells” Protocol Exchange (2010) DOI: 10.1038/protex.2011.204.
If you want to insert a link to the protocol in a paper or on a webpage, please use the DOI rather than the current webaddress. e.g. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/protex.2011.204 is better than: http://www.nature.com/protocolexchange/protocols/1985
Accessing Protocol Exchange protocols
Protocol Exchange protocols are registered with CrossRef.
Submitting a protocol to the Protocol Exchange
More detail can be found in our Author Guidelines.