A Blog Around The Clock

Have you ever read a paper in your field and wondered "how'd they done it?!" You read the "Materials and Methods" closely, again and again, and still have no idea how exactly was the procedure done. You want to replicate the experiment, or use the same technique for your own questions, but have no clue how to go about it.

As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words, and I guess that a video is worth a thousand pictures. So, learn the experimental techniques by watching videos of people actually doing them. You can do that on the brand new journal, just starting November 30th:

Journal of Visualized Experiments (JoVE), FREE journal publishing video-protocols:

JoVE is a newly founded online research journal that publishes video-articles on biological experiments (video-protocols). Video-articles include step-by-step instructions on experiments, and short discussions by experts describing possible technical problems and modifications.

JoVE invites article submissions in all areas of biology. Its editorial board includes a number of distinguished scientists, leading experts in their fields. JoVE employs the OPEN-SOURCE model: submission is free, and all video-articles published are freely available online.

A video-based approach is employed to allow for explicit demonstration on "how experiments are really done", which remains unclear or misinterpreted from traditional publications in print. This is to increase reproducibility and decrease the traditionally high failure rate of biological studies. This approach can be especially important for scientific fields where experimental procedures are highly sensitive and difficult for standardization, e.g. neurobiology or stem cell biology. The JoVE's approach is also expected to facilitate adoption of new technologies, e.g. genomics and proteomics, and thus lead to significant savings in time in resources in the academic and industrial research.

Update: Pimm has more details.