Frequently Asked Questions

Yes, users can both rate and comment on each procedure to share with the scientific community any updates they have, achievements, unsuccessful procedures, or support. They can also reply to specific messages and start threads.

As researchers, we know that scientists are at the heart of science. That is why SciFailures is based on networking, sharing procedures and results to help other researchers plan more effective working strategies, and searching for procedures that have already been tried unsuccessfully.

If you find a new colleague, you can follow them to be notified when they publish a new procedure. You can also send them a private message.

Yes, there is a procedure template available for anyone who prefers this option to using the web form. Once you have filled it in, all you need to do is send it to procedures@scifailures.com.

Yes, once you are logged in, you can customise your homepage to show the most recent procedures using your favourite keywords.

Yes, once you are logged in, you can customise your homepage to show the latest procedures from the researchers you are following.

Yes, you can upload additional information when publishing a new procedure. Besides to be shown in the procedure, users can download that additional information.

Currently, SciFailures supports procedures submitted in English to ensure accessibility for the global research community.

Any researcher with a DOI can register and publish procedures on SciFailures under their own responsibility. However, if you are not the principal investigator (PI) of a research group, please ensure you have the necessary consent to make the experimental information public (whether in a public or anonymous format). We strongly encourage collaboration and the sharing of knowledge, but we also want to ensure that this platform does not lead to conflicts or misunderstandings within your workplace or research group. It is important to respect internal protocols and obtain proper permissions before publishing sensitive or proprietary data.

Yes, you can edit or remove a procedure at any time. Just send an email to procedures@scifailures.com with the procedure title or link and your changes. However, since procedures are reviewed before publishing, any edit will also be reviewed before updating.

You need a SciFailures account to publish new procedures. Each account is linked to a verified ORCID profile, so every procedure you publish is related to you and will appear in your profile (unless you choose to make it anonymous; in this case, check the next question).

When you choose to publish a procedure anonymously your name will not appear on it or on the search results. Nevertheless, it will be visible (only for you) in your profile.

You can change its visibility at any time.

Once you’ve submitted a new procedure, it’ll be reviewed before it’s published. We don’t just look for any errors or inconsistencies, but we also make sure that your procedure hasn’t already been published, and that we haven’t published anything else by mistake.

But if you think we’ve made a mistake and given the green light to a procedure you’ve already published, just drop us a line at support@scifailures.com. We’ll check it out right away and take care of it.

Just your ORCID ID. SciFailures doesn’t pull any data from ORCID other than the ORCID iD. Users log in to the ORCID website, and SciFailures doesn’t have access to that login info.

SciFailures uses a protocol called OAuth 2.0 to communicate with ORCID. All we do is ask ORCID to verify that the user exists. After each login, we get a success/failure message. If the user is in the ORCID database, SciFailures gets the ORCID iD with the success message.

We don’t send or receive any information from ORCID. That’s why we ask you to fill in some details the first time you access your account, like your name and email.

We review each submitted procedure before publishing and check carefully that it has not already been posted by another user, so your procedures are protected from re-posting.

SciFailures is mainly about making available and opening up to every scientist procedures, experiments and results that are usually not published as articles or patents. SciFailures is all the pages in your laboratory notebook you don’t include in the final article, but it can save a lot of time to other scientists and researchers.

Right now, SciFailures’ procedures are public and open to everyone. You can choose to publish a procedure anonymously, but its content will be visible to the whole community.

It’s an interesting question, and we’ll look into including more restricted publishing options in the future.

Yes, users can both rate and comment on each procedure to share with the scientific community any updates they have, achievements, unsuccessful procedures, or support. They can also reply to specific messages and start threads.

At the moment, the review process for submitted procedures is managed by junior researchers. We carefully review each submission to ensure that it meets the platform’s standards for reliability and quality. Additionally, the SciFailures community plays an important role in the review process by providing feedback through comments. This collaborative input allows for further refinements or updates to the protocols. As the community grows, we aim to expand our review system to include more contributors, fostering a dynamic and ever-improving knowledge base.

The rating and commenting system lets users share their experiences with other researchers. If you try a procedure and don’t get the same results as the user who published it, you can leave a comment or even send them a private message to share your experience.

However, if you think a procedure is intentionally wrong, you can send an email to support@scifailures.com.

SciFailures does not own the information published here. The use of ORCID as a user validation tool allows each procedure to be linked to the person who published it.

SciFailures connects researchers and allows them to publish research that would otherwise be discarded. However, the information that users post is their own authorship and responsibility.

SciFailures is free to use and the information published in it is open to everyone. We do not sell or hide any data. Our motivation is to democratise scientific discovery and to value the work done as much as the work published.

Read the question “Who owns the data once it’s shared?” in the Legal and Ethical Concerns section.

SciFailures connects researchers and allows them to publish research that would otherwise be discarded. However, the information that users publish is their own authorship and responsibility.

On the homepage, just below the search bar, there is text that encourages you to create an account. It is really easy, once you click on the text you just need to log in to your ORCID account on the official ORCID site.

SciFailures has no access to any ORCID data other than your ORCID iD to validate that you have an account. Read the question “Does SciFailures get any data from my ORCID profile” in the Legal and Ethical Concerns section.

If you are experiencing a technical problem, you can send an email describing the problem to support@scifailures.com.

We will read your issue and contact you as soon as possible to resolve it.

SciFailures is designed to be simple an intuitive. However, there are available some brief tutorials about the different functionalities of the platform in the About page.

Currently, SciFailures does not offer live chat for immediate assistance. However, you can reach our support team by emailing support@scifailures.com, and we will respond as quickly as possible to assist you with any questions or issues.

Suggestions for improvements and new features you want or miss are always welcome! If you have any you would like to share with us, please send them to support@scifailures.com.

SciFailures is a free site with no subscriptions or paid features. Everything is free and available. Great, right?

If you want to cite a procedure in a scientific publication, you can simply click on the “Cite this procedure” button that appears at the top of each procedure.

However, if you want to cite a procedure manually, you only need to do so as an URL. We encourage you to include the author of the procedure to make their work visible.

SciFailures doesn’t have a traditional newsletter, but you can stay informed by saving specific keywords or researcher profiles. You’ll receive email notifications whenever there are new posts or updates related to your saved items.

Currently, SciFailures does not produce annual reports or detailed metrics on platform impact. However, as a growing community, we recognize the value of tracking participation and engagement to better serve the scientific community. This is something we may explore in the future as the platform evolves.