methodsplease

MethodsPlease is a community-driven online repository that collects and disseminates step-by-step methods, workflows, and best practices across disciplines. The platform emphasizes clarity, reproducibility, and accessibility, inviting contributors to describe procedures in a consistent, reuse-friendly format. Methods are typically organized around a defined objective and include actionable steps, prerequisites, and validation notes to support implementation.

Content spans scientific protocols, data-analysis pipelines, software development workflows, educational activities, and project-management templates. Entries commonly present a purpose, scope, required materials, step-by-step instructions, quality checks, and references or citations. To support reuse, methods are versioned, and users can comment on and request clarifications, propose alternative approaches, or report results from replication attempts.

Governance is crowdsourced, with oversight by domain editors who review submissions for clarity, safety, and compliance with licensing terms. Most content is published under open licenses to encourage redistribution and adaptation. Edit histories preserve provenance, and contributors may gain recognition through attribution, contributor profiles, or a points-based system tied to method quality and usage.

Origins trace to a volunteer-driven initiative in the early 2020s aimed at improving procedural documentation beyond traditional tutorials, emphasizing explicit steps and verifiability over narrative description.

Reception in practice has been mixed. Proponents highlight improved reproducibility and onboarding, while critics note variable quality and the need for stringent peer review. Proponents advocate integrating MethodsPlease entries with institutional documentation and training programs.