Hi everyone,

We want to address some questions that have come up recently about how project updates are created.

At this point, project updates are mostly reserved for when the researchers have news to report, rather than at pre-set intervals whether or not there's actual news. We made this change because we noticed that some of the project updates were simply repeating old information, and that the updates in general weren't being always widely read.

That said, since there's interest among some regular forum visitors, we'll resume posting shorter updates here in the forum to let you know when we have our regular research calls, even when there's little or no news to report.

For those interested, here's the project update process.

Project Updates

We typically speak with the researchers on active projects every month. The calls are generally short and are mostly spent on the technical details (such as dealing with any work unit issues). During the calls, we listen for newsworthy items, such as an upcoming paper being published, a major finding, staffing changes, or a shift in the research (e.g. when Mapping Cancer Markers switched to ovarian cancer work units). Sometimes the news cannot immediately be made public, but once there's news that can be shared, we ask the research team to prepare a draft of an update.

Researchers are incredibly busy, not just with their lab work but also with teaching, academic committees, writing for publication, and writing grants. (Those last two categories can determine the sustainability of their work). We generally give them 2-4 weeks to prepare a project update. Then we review it, add any explanations or simplify language so it's easier for the public to understand, and then get it approved internally. The researchers always approve the final drafts to ensure that our changes didn't impact the scientific validity of the information.

There are usually at least 3-4 project updates in the works at any given time. These updates are prioritized over other types of communications.

Forum Updates

Last year, Viktors posted short updates from our monthly research calls. Since a few volunteers have recently expressed interest in seeing these resume, we'll start posting these very short updates again. They'll mostly be about the nuts and bolts of running the projects, rather than about the science.

Thanks to everyone for your interest and support.