Dear researchers: send us your lab hacks

What’s the best way to clean a laboratory while preserving half-finished half-experiments? How can you make sure a group of researchers keeps the workbench clean, but doesn’t throw out a new medical marvel with the rubbish? And how do you implement a cleaning rota so someone else can take on the responsibility next time?

The truth is, we at Nature don’t know. But we’re certain you do, and we’d like to share your collective wisdom with the rest of our audience. So, if you’ve found a great extra use for a label-maker, a world-beating pipette strategy or a computer tool you use every single day and want other scientists to know about, let us know. We plan to publish a selection of your tips in the new year.

We’ve made a habit of already sharing the advice of scientists in our pages, so others are able to stand on the shoulders of giants — or, at least, lean on their shoulders to improve their sample-preparation techniques. This year, for example, we learnt how to save money by improving cold-storage management, how to find work–life balance by leaving some tasks incomplete (but with a sticky-note memory-jogger) and how often you need to take manufacturers’ recommendations seriously on reagents.

Whatever your lab hack is, please get in touch with us at [email protected] to share it. All of those we publish will be credited and we hope the tips will help to advance science and speed up research in the lab.