Contribution Guidelines

Getting Started

Thank you for your interest in contributing to ActinoBase! As a collaborative project, the goal of this Wiki is to collect and distribute information from Actinobacteria researchers worldwide. This page exists to give instructions on how to get started adding and editing content on the Wiki, as well as style guidelines in order to maintain the quality and consistency of the information therein.

Tips

To make a new page, simply add a link to it! If you would like to add a new media recipe for example, navigate to the media recipes page and click edit, type [[your media name here]]. Then press save. This will create a red link to the page (red meaning the page does not yet exist). Simply click on the red link to create the page and add your resource using the guidelines below!

Some special characters (e.g. delta, phi, lambda, degree) cannot be typed directly into ActinoBase. See the Cheat Sheet section below for a table showing the shortcuts for adding these resources, or check the XML/HTML character guide here.

To upload an image click the “Upload File” option on the toolbar. To add this image to a page use the code “[[File:your_image_filename.png |What is your image]]”, where the left component is the file name of your uploaded image, and the right side is the image title (which will appear when you hover over the image with your mouse).

General rules & guidelines

• Please do not link to external sources without context! A hyperlink to the paper is not an experimental protocol. If you would like to contribute resources please write them out according to the guidelines below, simply hyperlinking a protocol is not helpful!
• Within categories please keep resources listed in alphabetical order.
• Please ensure all acronyms are defined.

Rules for Protocol Pages

See the links below for example pages. Tri-parental mating High GC PCR Salting Out Genomic DNA Extraction Method

All protocols require the following (Note: hints & tips pages (e.g. High GC PCR) do not need to adhere to this format).

• Title
• List of organisms this protocols has been confirmed to work for, with citations if possible. Please also link to the relevant organisms page.
• Brief description of the purpose of the protocol and, where necessary, the theory behind the method.
• Materials- if specific buffers are needed please provide detailed recipes. If specific media are needed you can link to the relevant pages form the media recipes section.
• Protocol- detailed description of each step, numbered or as bullet points.
• Notes- any other information that is helpful or required for the protocol.
• References- where possible refer to the original paper describing the method, or examples where the protocol has been used for actinomycetes.
• Sign off- please sign the protocol with your name & affiliation.