Template Library
A blank protocol is a slow way to start. The Template Library ships a set of pre-built, ready-to-use protocols, from a Q5 PCR recipe to a 384-well viability plate to an LC-MS run, that you can drop straight into your Methods library and edit. Many of them carry the vendor PDF they were transcribed from, so you can check any number against the original insert.
What a template is, and why
A template is a starting point for a method. It is a complete, structured protocol someone has already written, with the right method type (PCR, plate layout, LC gradient, free-form markdown), the reagent table filled in, the cycling program set, and the steps written out. When you use a template, ResearchOS copies it into your own Methods library as a new method you fully own and can edit. The original template is never touched, and your copy is yours to adapt for your bench.
The point is twofold. First comes speed. You should not have to retype a standard agarose-gel procedure or rebuild a colony-PCR program from memory every time. Second, and just as important, comes fidelity. A transcribed protocol from a known source is less error-prone than one reconstructed from memory or copied out of an old lab notebook, and when the template carries its source document you can verify it (more on that below).
What is in the library
The library ships 91 templates grouped by the kind of lab task they cover. Each one targets a specific method type, so it opens in the right editor with the right fields the moment you use it.
- Molecular biology is the largest group, with PCR setups (Q5, Taq, colony-PCR screens), gel electrophoresis, cloning and assembly steps, and similar bench protocols.
- qPCR covers dye-based and probe-based master-mix protocols (Luna, QuantiNova, and others), each with the primer concentrations, cycling, and melt-curve guidance from the kit handbook.
- Cell culture covers passaging schedules, media, and viability assays.
- LC-MS covers liquid-chromatography gradients and mass spec acquisition, including a few that pair the two into one unit (see LC-MS combination templates).
- Plate layouts are ready-to-annotate 96- and 384-well grids for dose-response and assay work.
- Protein biochemistry, cell biology, analytical chemistry, and a general blank-protocol skeleton round out the set.
The verifiable source PDF
This is what makes these templates trustworthy and not only convenient. A growing subset of the library, 52 of the 91 templates today and rolling out further, bundles the actual vendor document the protocol was transcribed from, whether that is the kit insert, the manufacturer handbook, or the published method PDF. The file ships with ResearchOS and is recorded with its original source URL and a SHA-256 checksum, so the copy you have is verifiably the document it claims to be.
Two buttons in the template detail make that comparison one click each. View full protocol opens the complete extracted method rendered the way it will look once it is in your library, the full reagent table and cycling program rather than the compact summary the preview shows. View vendor PDF opens the bundled source document. Side by side, they let you read our transcription against the manufacturer's original, which is also how we audit the library ourselves.
How to use a template
Templates live one step away from your own Methods library. You browse them, preview them, and pull the one you want into your library as an editable method.
- From the Methods library, open the template browser. Use the segmented control to switch between your method types and the template catalog, and the category filter and search box (by name, type, or tag) to narrow the list.
- Select a template to preview it in the detail pane. A compact preview shows the shape of the protocol, and two buttons open the full view, View full protocol for the complete rendered method and (for the 52 with a bundled document) View vendor PDF for the original.
- Pick a destination category for where the new method should land in your library (the detail pane shows "Will be added to" so there is no surprise), then click Use template.
- The template is copied into your Methods library as a brand-new method you own. Edit it freely, attach it to experiments, and share it with the lab if you like. None of that touches the original template.
384-well plates
Plate-layout templates are not just a picture of a grid. They are an interactive, annotated layout for the exact plate format you work in, including 384-well plates (16 rows A through P by 24 columns). The 384-well viability template, for example, ships with the blank, vehicle, and max-kill control columns marked and a 20-point dose series laid across the plate, following standard assay-guidance practice. You start from a real, sensible layout instead of an empty grid, then adjust it for your samples.
LC-MS combination templates
A few of the LC-MS templates are combinations, packaging a liquid-chromatography gradient and a mass spec acquisition method into one attachable unit, because in practice the two are run together and the parameters are tuned as a pair. Three of these LC-MS combination templates ship today (peptide, metabolite, and intact-protein workflows). Using one drops both halves into your library together, ready to attach to an experiment as a single coherent method. The structured instrument parameters in these were transcribed verbatim from the vendor documentation. If one half ever fails to copy (a missing file, an interrupted run), ResearchOS leaves the part that did land in place and tags it incomplete-kit so you can find and remove it rather than ending up with a silent half-built method.
Provenance and open formats
Everything about a template is plain, inspectable data. The protocol body is markdown, the structured fields are JSON, and the bundled source PDFs are ordinary PDFs recorded with their origin URL and checksum. A method you create from a template is stored the same open way as any other method on disk, so it is portable, diff-able, and readable without ResearchOS. The bundled-PDF provenance, a verifiable link from a working protocol back to the document it came from, is exactly the kind of integrity trail the NIH data-management expectations are written around. See the NIH Data Management and Sharing page for how this fits, and Sharing and permissions for who can see a method once it is in your library.