- Submitting an evaluation of a method
- Searching for an evaluation of a method in a specific publication (Citation Search)
- General searching for evaluations of methods matching specific criteria (Method Search)
- Browsing method evaluations
- Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
1. Submitting an evaluation of a method
1.1 Prior to submitting an evaluation of a literature method, you will need to register if you haven’t already. Click on “Register Today” in the top right corner of any screen. The instructions are self-explanatory. You will need to submit a working e-mail address which is used to confirm registration. You will also need to select from several areas of interest.
1.2 Once you have registered and logged in, click on the “Submit Evaluation” tab. Enter either the Digital Object Identifier (DOI) or the journal title, volume, and starting page number of the relevant publication in the appropriate boxes.
- An auto-complete feature will help you to quickly enter your journal title—many abbreviations are also accepted. Our list of journal titles is huge and includes the vast majority of current and out of print academic publications, which are maintained in the CrossRef database. If you are having trouble finding your journal title in the list, you can query the CrossRef database directly here.
- If an evaluation has not yet been submitted for your publication of interest, you will be notified of this and you can proceed to have a new entry created in the database by clicking on the “Post New Method” button. Proceed to step 1.6.
1.3 If other evaluation(s) have already been submitted for methods in your publication of interest, you will be brought to the Publication Summary page. The Publication Summary page lists the methods from the publication which have been evaluated. If one of these methods appears to be relevant to you, click on the Method Title to proceed to the Method Summary page. There you will be able to view the other evaluations, and submit one of your own. If your method is not present, proceed to step 1.5.
1.4 At the Method Summary page, you can view other evaluations of your method of interest. A full description of the method is given at the top of the screen. If this is the method you wish to submit an evaluation for, click on the “Post New Evaluation” button and proceed to step 1.11.
1.5 If your method is not present, click on the “Post New Method” button.
1.6 Select whether you want to evaluate the publication as a whole (i.e. the publication describes a single method which you are commenting on), or a specific method from the publication (or from its supporting information).
1.7 Enter a title for your method. It is important that you choose a title which is specific enough for people to find your evaluation without knowing the publication details. For example, a recent Science publication entitled “Real-Time DNA Sequencing from Single Polymerase Molecules” describes a method which could be titled more specifically “Real-time DNA sequencing from single polymerase molecules using zero-mode waveguide nanostructure arrays”. In other cases, the method may be buried within the publication and so its name would have no connection to the publication title. It generally doesn’t hurt to be too specific (within reason), as this will help others to locate your evaluation more easily.
1.8 If you chose “Specific Method” above, enter details to properly specify the method within the publication (i.e. to differentiate the method from other similar ones within the publication). The easiest way to do this is usually to simply enter the page and paragraph number.
1.9 Enter a space-separated list of keywords which describe the method.
1.10 Select the relevant subject areas and specialties for the method. Note that these subject areas may be unrelated to the publication itself.
1.11 Fill out the evaluation, which consists of 3 simple multiple choice questions, and 2 textboxes where you can provide explanation, and also recommend other related methods. Click on “Submit Evaluation” to complete the process.
1.12 You can edit your evaluation at any time by clicking on the “Edit Evaluation” button on the Method Summary page (assuming that you are logged in). You can delete your evaluation from the Edit Evaluation page—there is a “Delete my Evaluation” button at the bottom of the page. You can also edit the Method Info (e.g. title of the method you are evaluating) by clicking on the “Edit Method Info” button. Note that you can only change the method info if no one else has provided an evaluation for the same method. If you wish to change the method info and another evaluation is present, please contact us (INSERT LINK HERE) directly to request the change.
2. Searching for an evaluation of a method in a specific publication (Citation Search)
2.1 Click on the “Search Evaluations” tab. Enter either the Digital Object Identifier (DOI) or the journal title, volume, and starting page number of the relevant publication in the appropriate boxes in the “Citation Search” section (top of Search Evaluations page).
- An auto-complete feature will help you to quickly enter your journal title—many abbreviations are also accepted. Our list of journal titles is huge and includes the vast majority of current and out of print academic publications, which are maintained in the CrossRef database. If you are having trouble finding your journal title in the list, you can query the CrossRef database directly here.
2.2 If evaluation(s) have been submitted for methods in your publication of interest, you will be brought to the Publication Summary page. The Publication Summary page lists the methods from the publication which have been evaluated. If one of these methods appears to be relevant to you, click on the Method Title to proceed to the Method Summary page. There you will be able to view the evaluations in detail (by clicking on the magnifying glass in the table under the column heading “View”).
- If an evaluation has not yet been submitted for your publication of interest, it will say “No methods defined for this publication yet”.
3. General searching for evaluations of methods matching specific criteria (Method Search)
3.1 Click on the “Search Evaluations” tab. Fill in the desired criteria in the bottom half of the Search Evaluations page. You can get additional details by hovering your pointer on the blue and white info symbols (tooltips) on the page.
- Use this feature to perform a general search in our database for evaluations of methods which could come from various sources. “Method Info” refers to descriptors which are provided by the evaluators to describe the specific methods. Use “Publication Info” to narrow your search to methods from specific publications, authors, or dates. All fields are optional. The search engine currently operates with “AND” logic between all fields. For example, if “Method Title” = “transistor”, and “Method Keywords” = “transistor”, results will only be returned for methods which have “transistor” listed in both the method title AND the keywords. Any combination of fields under “Method Info” and “Publication Info” can be utilized. If the demand is sufficient, we will implement a more advanced search engine—please give us your feedback at feedback@sciencecheck.org.
3.2 On the Search Results page, you will see a list of methods which match your search criteria. Click on the method title to go the Method Summary page.
3.3 On the Method Summary page, click on the magnifying glass under the “View” column in the “Method Evaluations” table, to view the specific evaluation.
4. Browsing method evaluations
4.1 Click on the “Browse Methods” tab. The instructions are self-explanatory. Note that you can order the resulting methods by the date of the evaluation or the date of the publication itself. Click on the method title to go to the Method Summary page
4.2 On the Method Summary page, click on the magnifying glass under the “View” column in the “Method Evaluations” table, to view the specific evaluation.
5. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Updated June 1, 2010
General Questions
See our About section for many answers to general questions about ScienceCheck.
How is ScienceCheck different from other research literature sites?
There are numerous sites (e.g. Faculty of 1000 ) which collect opinions and discussions on academic publications, however to our knowledge ScienceCheck is the only site which focuses on the real-world application of the methods reported in many of these publications.
What exactly is a method?
For our uses, a method is simply a protocol or set of instructions which is published, generally in an academic journal or a patent. The publication itself can represent a single method (e.g. a patent entitled “Method of expressing alpha-1-antitrypsin in bacteria”), or it may contain a few or many methods (either in the publication or its supporting information), any of which may be evaluated on this website. For example, a chemical biology paper on the study of a specific form of cancer using natural product analogs may include a variety of unrelated methods, including methods for the chemical synthesis of the natural product analogs, the culturing of the cells, methods for measuring the phenotype of interest, and additional methods used to identify the cellular target of the natural product. Separate evaluations could be provided for each of these methods by researchers who have attempted to utilize them in their own work.
Technical Questions
Why can’t I find any information on my publications of interest?
Most likely because the methods in your publications have not been evaluated yet. Since ScienceCheck.org is a new website, our repository of evaluations is small but growing rapidly. Check back in the future—hopefully others will provide evaluations for your publications of interest. We are planning to implement a notification system that will allow you to specify your publications of interest and receive e-mails when evaluations have been provided.
Why isn’t the journal title of my publication of interest on your list of journals?
The vast majority of academic publications are part of the CrossRef database, which utilizes DOI (Digital Object Identifiers). This allows individual publications to be uniquely identified, just like a bar code on an item at the store. If you can’t find your title in our list, check the title list here. You may be able to find your publication by entering its DOI, which is generally listed with each article on the publication’s website. Currently you may need to do this with the following publications:
-Chemical Communications
-Journal of the Chemical Society, Perkin Trans 1
-Other Royal Society of Chemisty (RSC) journals may also be problematic.
We are also aware of DOI problems with the following publications, which to our knowledge will prevent evaluations from being properly submitted at this time:
-Mendeleev Communications
-BioTechniques
Please contact us at help@sciencecheck.org if you find other problematic cases.
I can find the journal title, but why isn’t the search finding the paper I’m looking for?
One problem that we have encountered occasionally occurs when the publisher has the changed the name for the journal. If this is the case, you may need to enter the older or newer name of the journal.
Why didn’t I receive a confirmation e-mail after I registered?
Most likely the confirmation ended up in your spam box or was removed by a spam filter. Check your spam box or contact your network administrator. We have made a few adjustments to our mail system to improve the chances that mail is being properly delivered, but if you have any problems, don’t hesitate to contact us directly at help@sciencecheck.org.
How can I stay notified about comments to my evaluation?
We are planning to implement a system that will notify you when additional evaluations or comments are added to the method which you evaluated—stay tuned for updates. In the meantime it would be easiest to simply bookmark your Method Summary page (or your Method Evaluation page if you’re interested only in comments), and check back on it occasionally. You could also bookmark the Publication Summary pages if you are interested in any other feedback which has been provided for the specific publication.
I’m interested in specific publications which do not yet have evaluations. Can I get notified when there are evaluations and/or comments posted for these publications?
We are planning to implement a notification system which will inform you when evaluations have been provided for your publications of interest. Stay tuned for updates.