• http://www.myjove.com/index.stt

Protocols in life-science research are often complicated and fine details can make or break an experiment. Written protocols often don't spell out important details, and the nature of the equipment and biological samples becomes more obvious with a visual demonstration. So, if you are struggling to get your experiments to work and you want someone to show you how to do the experiment, rather than tussling with yet another written protocol, check out the recently launched Journal of Visualized Experiments (JoVE).

JoVE is an online journal that publishes visualized (video-based) biological research studies. The web site aims to solve some of the most difficult problems in contemporary life-science research, such as the time-consuming learning of experimental techniques, and how to reliably reproduce biological experiments.

Each video-article will include step-by-step instructions for an experiment, a demonstration of equipment and reagents, and a short discussion by experts describing possible technical problems and modifications.

Access to the journal is free, so scientists can search for videos relevant to their work and use them as protocols. Publication in JoVE is also free — which is remarkable, considering that JoVE has no outside funding and runs on a volunteer staff of two.

JoVE is the pet project of Moshe Pritsker, a postdoctoral researcher at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, USA, who hopes that the effectiveness of visual instructions compared with currently used written protocols will decrease failure rates for biological experiments and, therefore, save scientists time and money. It will also increase reproducibility of published results, one of the main problems in life-science research.