On July 27, The Paper learned from the Springer Nature Group that the company announced that it has acquired protocols.io, an experimental protocol sharing platform, to continue to promote open research.

protocols.io is a secure platform for creating and sharing reproducible scientific methods. Founded in 2012, it was conceived by geneticist Lenny Teytelman, computer scientists Alexei Stoliartchouk and Irinia Makkaveeva to facilitate scientific communication and the rapid sharing of knowledge.

The company that owns the platform is located in Berkeley, California, USA. In addition to providing protocol hosting, the platform enables researchers to write and share the latest research methods on it to support greater and more efficient collaboration and innovation.

Research shows that a lack of awareness of existing research work or negative results leads to unnecessary duplication of work, potentially costing up to €26 billion in Europe alone.

Scientific progress depends on the credibility of data, and research work can be verified, borrowed and repeated. Sharing all elements of scientific research, including data, methods and materials, and even negative results, can improve research efficiency, achieve reproducibility, and build trust in science.

Protocols play a vital role in that by setting out detailed step-by-step instructions for scientific methods, they aim to standardize the process, ensure accurate results, and enable research to be replicated. With the addition of protocols.io to Springer Nature's leading protocol service, researchers now have the option to publicly publish their protocols on the protocols.io platform and publish them in peer-reviewed publications. Searches were performed through the database platform Springer Nature Experiments.

Harsh Jegadeesan, Chief Publishing Officer, Springer Nature, commented: "Springer Nature is committed to open research...this involves all aspects of scientific research, including data, code and experimental protocols. .With the addition of protocols.io, we will advance an open and more reproducible research ecosystem to accelerate solutions to the world's most pressing challenges."

In 2022, Springer Nature will publish more than 154,000 OA (Open Access) articles, including nearly 6,000 experimental protocols, and support more than 2.5 million authors to publish research in OA.

As an academic publisher, Springer Nature brings together a series of trusted brands, including Springer, Nature Portfolio, BMC, Palgrave Macmillan and Scientific American.