19 Jul 2024
New JRC initiative to promote trust and reusability of methods used in life science research
The JRC-led initiative called PRO-MaP (Promoting Reusable and Open Methods and Protocols) aims to improve methodological reporting and transparency in scientific publications to capitalise on innovation and improve health outcomes for all.
PRO-MaP brings together a broad cross-section of the life science community, from policy makers to publishers, to join forces and define means to increase and improve the open reporting of methods and reusable protocols. It supports the EU's Open Science and knowledge valorisation policies.
Recommendations set out in a newly published report outline actions that key stakeholder groups - individual reseachers, research organisations, editors and publishers, and funders - can take to achieve PRO-MaP goals.
These include:
- Cultural change to reward and incentivise methods' development and sharing of reusable, open methods and protocols
- Sharing reusable step-by-step protocols, and citing them in publications to describe how methods were implemented
- Citable and shared protocols on dynamic platforms to allow versioning or forking as the protocol is adapted by its creators or others
- Using methodological shortcut citations responsibly to ensure that cited resources are accessible and contain a detailed description of the methods that the citing authors used
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