A unique web resource for physiology, ecology and the environmental sciences: PrometheusWiki

Lawren Sack; Will K. Cornwell; Louis S. Santiago; Margaret M. Barbour; Brendan Choat; John R. Evans; Rana Munns; Adrienne Nicotra

doi:10.1071/FP10097

RESEARCH ARTICLE

A unique web resource for physiology, ecology and the environmental sciences: PrometheusWiki

Lawren Sack ^A ^G , Will K. Cornwell ^B , Louis S. Santiago ^C , Margaret M. Barbour ^D , Brendan Choat ^E , John R. Evans ^E , Rana Munns ^F and Adrienne Nicotra ^E

+ Author Affiliations

- Author Affiliations

^A Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, 621 Charles E. Young Drive South, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1606, USA.

^B Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.

^C Department of Botany and Plant Sciences, University of California, 2150 Batchelor Hall, Riverside, CA 92521-0001, USA.

^D Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources, University of Sydney, Private Bag 4011, Narellan, NSW 2567, Australia.

^E Research School of Biology, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia.

^F CSIRO Plant Industry, GPO Box 1600, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia.

^G Corresponding author. Email: lawrensack@ucla.edu

Functional Plant Biology 37(8) 687-693 https://doi.org/10.1071/FP10097
Submitted: 29 April 2010 Accepted: 1 July 2010 Published: 26 July 2010

Abstract

PROtocols, METHods, Explanations and Updated Standards Wiki (PrometheusWiki, http://www.publish.csiro.au/prometheuswiki/) is a new open access, fully searchable web resource that contains protocols and methods for plant physiology, ecology and environmental sciences. Contributions can be uploaded by anyone in the community, with attributed authorship, and are open for wiki-style comment. This resource allows the gathering in one place of methods, links to published methods and detailed protocols used by leading laboratories around the world, with annotation. As a web resource, PrometheusWiki is continually evolving and updatable, easily and rapidly searchable and highly accessible. It will also enhance communication, allowing multimedia description of protocols and techniques, with spreadsheet tools, slide shows and video files easily integrated into the text. This resource is anticipated to lead to strong benefits in standardising methods, improving access to training for students and professionals, promoting collaborations and expanding the cutting edge of research.

Additional keywords: methods, protocols, standardisation, web publishing, wiki.

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Marilyn Ball, Phil Rundel, Andrew Stammer, Mark Westoby and Ian Wright, for encouragement, discussion and input, and to the Australian Network for Vegetation Function for support of the Working Group PROMETHEUS during which this project was planned. We express particular gratitude to Neil Moreton of CSIRO PUBLISHING and our editorial assistant Emma McIntosh for their good humour and hard work building the PrometheusWiki website. This work was supported in part by NSF Grants IOB-0546784 to LS and IOS-0817212 to LSS.

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