Hello hchc,

Thanks for your proposal. I'd like to give you as detailed a response as possible, since you've raised important points.

Status of 2018 Updates for Active Projects
This doesn't include any mini-updates in the forum and on social media, or any updates for completed projects.

FAAH - updates in February and May
HSTB - updates in March and September
MCM - update in August, another coming once the project starts running sarcoma workunits (timeline uncertain, but hopefully early 2019)
MIP - updates in March and June, with another being prepared for posting this month
OET - update in October, project ending on WCG
OZ - one update in August and another being prepared, should be posted in December or early January
SCC - update in June, another scheduled for publishing on Wednesday

Contractural Requirements for Project Updates
Our researcher agreement--which was updated this year--does require researchers to provide regular project updates, without specifying a number. Usually, the research teams do provide roughly two per year. When a project produces fewer than two updates, one or more (well, usually more) of the following has occurred:

The researchers lose funding and spend extra time applying for new grants (in addition to the time they already spend on grantwriting and reporting).
The research team loses one or more members, which means they must spend much of their time trying to hire replacements.
The research team moves to a new location.
The team changes leadership.
Someone on the team goes on maternity/paternity leave, which is now mandated in most countries. (Note that most of the researchers come back early and stay in touch with us throughout this time, but they're not in their offices/labs.)

Any one of these changes can take 6-18 months for a research team to process. And as science and science education continue to lose funding globally, these types of major changes to all research organizations are becoming more and more common.

We mention when a research team member is leaving, but we should probably also emphasize in our forum posts for volunteers to expect a possibility lessening of formal updates when this happens for a particular project.

It's also important to note that updates generally take a minimum of six weeks to prepare, and the timeframe is usually longer than that. WCG's role in the updates is to complete support tasks such as adding background on the projects for newer volunteers, proofreading, adding any needed explanations that make the updates easier for the public to understand, and other layperson-type tasks.

Whenever there is any important news, this process is escalated so that we can let volunteers know ASAP.

In terms of researchers posting frequent updates on their own websites with details about the experiments, that's generally possible only when their WCG project is their only project, or one of a couple. Most labs these days are running more, and need to split their time amongst them.

So here's what we're gonna do...
1. During our next monthly call with each research team, I'll let them know that volunteers have requested that they provide two formal updates per year. Many of them already do this--and we already ask them to write updates at least twice a year--but I will make a point of reminding them throughout the year.
2. When we post an update that includes a team-changing event such as a researcher leaving, someone going on leave, etc., we'll include a reminder in the forum post about the update that this may mean that the next update could be awhile.
3. We'll revive the monthly mini-updates. Viktors had been posting these on occasion, but other members of the team may chime in on them as well.
4. You bring up a very important point about volunteers feeling appreciated and thanked. We try to do that on social media, via email, and in the project updates, but we will look at additional ways to let volunteers know that they are individually appreciated.

Thanks,

Caiti

Caiti,

THANK YOU for the information! It's appreciated you'll pass that on.

* And yeah, I try to follow WCG on social media (like Twitter) but forget to sometimes. I also try to find researcher projects' official pages, but it takes some time to hunt down.

* Totally understand formal updates can take tons of hours to prepare, edit, translate, proofread, make easy for laymen, etc.

* Mini-updates are super cool -- even a couple sentences in the forum -- lets us know tiny bits of news. Even if the post only takes 1 minute. It's better than total silence for 6-12 months. I don't want the pressure of writing a huge formal update to detract from mini-updates that take a few minutes to write.

* Of course, formal updates are appreciated, too. Two per calendar year would be ideal. To be honest, they don't have to be massive essays like they're submitting a paper for peer review, but many of us appreciate the long formal updates and read every word.

Once again, thank you.

@caitilarkin,

Thanks for that timely and truly informational reply!

Thank you caitilarkin!
Much appreciated.
Yves