Editorial
Ten Simple Rules for Getting Help from Online Scientific
Communities
Giovanni M. Dall’Olio1*, Jacopo Marino2, Michael Schubert3, Kevin L. Keys1, Melanie I. Stefan4, Colin S.
Gillespie5, Pierre Poulain6,7,8, Khader Shameer9,10, Robert Sugar3, Brandon M. Invergo1, Lars J. Jensen11,
Jaume Bertranpetit1, Hafid Laayouni1
1 Institute of Evolutionary Biology (UPF-CSIC), Departament de Cie`ncies Experimentals i de la Salut, Barcelona, Spain, 2 Institute of Organic Chemistry Universita¨t Zurich,
Zurich, Switzerland, 3 EMBL-EBI, Wellcome-Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton, United Kingdom, 4California Institute of Technology, Biology Division, Pasadena, California,
United States of America, 5 School of Mathematics & Statistics, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom, 6DSIMB, INSERM, U665, Paris, France, 7Univ
Paris Diderot, Sorbonne Paris Cite´, UMR-S665, Paris, France, 8 Institut National de la Transfusion Sanguine, Paris, France, 9Division of Cardiovascular Diseases, Mayo Clinic,
Rochester, Minnesota, United States of America, 10National Centre for Biological Sciences (TIFR), GKVK Campus, Bangalore, India, 11NNF Center for Protein Research,
Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
Introduction
The increasing complexity of research
requires scientists to work at the intersection
of multiple fields and to face problems for
which their formal education has not
prepared them. For example, biologists with
no or little background in programming are
now often using complex scripts to handle
the results from their experiments; vice
versa, programmers wishing to enter the
world of bioinformatics must know about
biochemistry, genetics, and other fields.
In this context, communication tools such
as mailing lists, web forums, and online
communities acquire increasing importance.
These tools permit scientists to quickly
contact people skilled in a specialized field.
A question posed properly to the right online
scientific community can help in solving
difficult problems, often faster than screening
literature or writing to publication authors.
The growth of active online scientific
communities, such as those listed in Table
S1, demonstrates how these tools are
becoming an important source of support
for an increasing number of researchers.
Nevertheless, making proper use of these
resources is not easy. Adhering to the social
norms of World Wide Web communica-
tion—loosely termed ‘‘netiquette’’—is both
important and non-trivial.
In this article, we take inspiration from
our experience on Internet-shared scien-
tific knowledge, and from similar docu-
ments such as ‘‘Asking the Questions the
Smart Way’’ [1] and ‘‘Getting Answers’’
[2], to provide guidelines and suggestions
on how to use online communities to solve
scientific problems.
Rule 1. Do Not Be Afraid to Ask
a Question
Some people are afraid of asking a
question in public, for fear of appearing
ignorant or foolish. Other people worry
about their ability to express the question
proficiently or with the correct grammar.
Actually, asking a question in a public
website is a good thing. First, the process
of composing a message to explain a
problem is itself a great exercise. Second,
it is a great way to learn faster, and to
enter into contact with people from
different fields. Third, and more impor-
tantly, your career will be difficult if you
do not learn how to get help from other
people.
As Albert Einstein once said, ‘‘The
important thing is not to stop questioning.
Curiosity has its own reason for existing’’
[3]. Asking the right questions should
always be a priority in science, and online
communities are a good place to practice.
Rule 2. State the Question
Clearly
The key to getting a good answer is to
ask the question in a clear and concise
way. If your question is too long, many
people simply will not read it. On the
contrary, if your question is too short,
people may interpret it incorrectly and
give you an erroneous answer.
A way to keep your questions short and
concise is to systematically break down the
problem into smaller parts. This can help
you to decide where to seek help, and how
much to seek. If you feel your problem is
composed of multiple questions, then post
as many messages as needed. You should
start a separate discussion thread for each
of the problems you want to solve,
avoiding mixing messages about different
topics together.
On the other hand, you should provide
enough details so that people can answer
you without having to ask you for
additional explanations. Read the message
you wrote carefully, and think about
which details you forgot to include. A
reader should be able to answer you just
by reading your initial message, without
having to look at the rest of the discussion,
or at what other people already have said
in response.
Some examples of non-concise ques-
tions and how to improve them are shown
in Text S1. Spend as much time as you
need in preparing your initial message: this
will save time later and will lead you to
find the best solution more easily. Many
people are surprised to see how some-
Citation: Dall’Olio GM, Marino J, Schubert M, Keys KL, Stefan MI, et al. (2011) Ten Simple Rules for Getting Help
from Online Scientific Communities. PLoS Comput Biol 7(9): e1002202. doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1002202
Editor: Philip E. Bourne, University of California San Diego, United States of America
Published September 2 , 2011
Copyright:  2011 Dall’Olio et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative
Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,
provided the original author and source are credited.
Funding: GMD is supported by grants SAF-2007-63171 and BFU2010-19443 (subprogram BMC) awarded by
Ministerio de Educacio´n y Ciencia (Spain), the Direccio´ General de Recerca, Generalitat de Catalunya (Grup de
Recerca Consolidat 2009 SGR 1101) to JB. KLK is supported by a 2010–2011 Fulbright student research grant to
Spain. LJJ is supported by a donation from the Novo Nordisk Foundation. JM is supported by funding from the
University of Zurich. MIS is supported by a long-term fellowship from EMBO. The funders had no role in study
design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
* E-mail: giovanni.dallolio@upf.edu
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9

times, in thinking about how to pose the
problem, the answer reveals itself!
Rule 3. New to a Mailing List?
Learn the Established Customs
before Posting
A common error is to rush into a web
forum and start asking something without
understanding how its web interface works
and which people use the resource.
Instead, a good habit is to spend a few
days, after having created an account,
reading the discussions published and
practicing with the web interface. You
will see which people use the forum or
mailing list, which rules of netiquette are
used, which kind of questions are asked,
and how much time it takes to obtain an
answer. For this reason, it is a good idea to
subscribe to a few mailing lists or forums
on your topics of interest even when you
do not urgently require anything from
them. This will show you the concrete
ways in which people post messages.
Remember that you may have to use a
different language depending on the
audience you are addressing. For example,
some technical terms may be understood
in one mailing list or community but not
in others. People who do not study
genomics might not immediately know
how to respond to questions about
GWASs, SNPs, or STRs (genome-wide
association studies, single nucleotide poly-
morphisms, and single tandem repeats,
respectively).
Rule 4. Do Not Ask What Has
Already Been Answered
People in general do not like to repeat
their explanations. Before posting a ques-
tion, use a search engine to see if a similar
question has been asked previously. You
should post a new question only if the
answers you have found are not satisfac-
tory. In case you decide to post a new
question, cite the previous answers and
explain why they are not sufficient to solve
your problem. This demonstrates that you
have already researched the answer on
your own. Most discussion forums or
mailing lists also have a searchable ar-
chive, which should be consulted before
posting a question.
Rule 5. Always Use a Good Title
People like to quickly skim through
titles, looking for questions within their
expertise that they are able to answer. So,
you will have to be good at catching the
attention of the readers that can help you.
Use a clear and concise title, so that
readers can decide whether they are able
to respond to your message without having
to read the whole message.
An approach to choosing a good title is
to think of a hypothetical web search
query that you would use to find a solution
to your problem. For example, where you
might search for ‘‘format BLAST data-
base,’’ an adequate title for a forum post
could be ‘‘How do I format a BLAST
database?’’ or ‘‘Formatting a BLAST
database.’’ More specificity, within reason,
is preferable.
At the same time, it is important not to
waste the time of the people who are not
able to help you, and are not interested in
what you are writing. Refrain from
attempts to attract attention with titles
such as ‘‘Help me’’ or ‘‘Urgent.’’ People
usually do not appreciate these kinds of
titles because each forum member must
then view the post in order to understand
what you are asking. If you use incorrect
titles, your message may be censured or
closed by the moderators, and you may be
forbidden to use the resource.
Some examples of good and bad titles
are shown in Text S1.
Rule 6. Do Your Homework
before Posting
People in an online community are
willing to help, but are not there to work
for you. You should always show that you
have first tried to solve your problem by
yourself. Explain clearly what you have
done, and describe the approach that you
took.
When asking for help to solve an
assignment, always explain how you have
tried to solve it. Many students from
bachelor programs use web forums and
mailing lists to copy-paste the assignments
given by their teachers, and call on other
people to show them how to solve them.
This behavior is not well received and can
bring you a bad reputation.
However, you can nonetheless ask for
help on how to solve an exercise if you
demonstrate that you have made some
effort in solving it. Show what you have
done so far, and why you think it is not
correct. Ask other people to check your
solution, not to give the solution to you.
When asking about a programming
issue, do not expect other people to write
a whole program for you: rather, post an
example of the code that you have written
and where you are stuck. Include an
example of the input and the expected
output of your program. If you receive
error messages, also include the full output
of the error. This will help the other users
to inspect your logic, to test the code on
their own computers, and to easily pin-
point the problem therein.
If you ask a question about a software
package, make sure that the solution is not
already answered in the user manual or
the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
before bringing your question to a forum.
Also, declare that you have already
checked these sources.
If you really need another person to
write a program or a task for you, then
explain that you are looking for a
collaboration, and say how you will
acknowledge a correct answer. If you
explain everything well, your reputation
online will also improve.
Rule 7. Proofread your Post and
Write in Correct English
Using correct grammar is important.
Readers will be more likely to answer if the
question is clear and correctly posed. Your
grammar does not need to be academic, but
it must be intelligible to a broad audience.
Avoid slang and abbreviations as much as
possible, to show that you have made at least
some effort in writing a clear message.
Writing in capital letters or in unconven-
tional styles, such as that of text messages, is
usually unwelcome, and in the long term can
deteriorate your reputation online.
Your message should be as concise as
possible. You do not need to introduce
yourself on every message; doing it only
once will be enough. Be careful of using
too many adverbs and adjectives, or
unnecessary changes in verb tense, as they
may make the text difficult to understand.
Also, do not be afraid of repeating
technical terms more than once, as using
too many synonyms will only make the
text more difficult to understand.
This rule may be the most difficult to
follow for non-native English speakers. A
good approach is to spend some time
reading the messages written by other
users of the forum or the mailing list and
follow their example. Search for a question
similar to what you want to ask, and use it
as a model; you may even copy and paste
some portions of the text if it helps you to
formulate a correct question.
Rule 8. Be Courteous to Other
Forum Members
Members of a discussion forum are
usually unpaid volunteers who offer their
time and expertise by volition and not by
obligation. They are therefore not obliged
to answer any questions at all.
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Maintaining civil and polite conversa-
tions fosters an environment that encour-
ages people to contribute. You must
remember that forums are as human as
their users, and you may sometimes receive
a perfect answer written in an unfriendly
tone. This can happen for various reasons:
perhaps the same question was asked
previously, or maybe the author was in a
bad mood when writing. For your career, it
is crucial that you not permit the discussion
to degenerate into an argument. Even if
you receive an impolite answer, stay calm
and answer as gently as you can [4]. And
remember the golden rule: treat other
forum members as you wish to be treated.
One of the most impolite behaviors
toward an online community is asking a
question in multiple places at the same
time. ‘‘Cross-posting’’, as this practice is
called, can make two distinct online
communities work through a solution for
you when only one is needed; this is an
abuse of forum members’ time. If you
have not received an answer and you
believe that asking it in another place
would get you one, provide a link back to
the original discussion. Similarly, if you
receive an answer in a different forum,
report the answer to the original forum.
Then, the people who helped you will
know what the correct solution is and that
you are no longer looking for it.
Rule 9. Remember That the
Archive of Your Discussion Can
Be Useful to Other People
Messages in a mailing list or forum
remain archived on the Internet. In certain
situations, this can be a source of trouble:
check the policy of your university or
employer regarding posting on the Internet;
avoid spreading embargoed information;
and if possible, use your academic/corpo-
rate email address when registering, to keep
your private life separated from your work.
Nevertheless, most of the time it is possible
to make use of online communities without
breaking any of your employer’s rules. In
these cases, the fact that an archive of the
discussion remains publicly accessible is
positive, as it becomes a useful resource for
people searching for solutions to similar
problems. Several knowledge archives are
actively saving bioinformatics-related ques-
tions from open source projects. For example,
questions about BioPerl [5] are kept in the
GMANE (http://news.gmane.org/gmane.
comp.lang.perl.bio.general) and Nabble ar-
chives (http://old.nabble.com/BioPerl-f135
96.html).
Since an archive of the discussions
remains available on Internet, it is good
practice to conclude the discussion by
indicating the correct solution to the
problem exposed or by summarizing the
suggestions received. If some of the answers
that you received have proven to be wrong,
do not be afraid of writing it in the online
discussion: this will help other people avoid
trying an erroneous solution. Even if you
did not receive any useful answers, sacrifice
a bit of your time to thank the people who
tried to help you and to explain that you
were not able to find a solution.
Rule 10. Give Back to the
Community
Have you found your answer? Great! As
time progresses and you get more experi-
enced in the respective field in which you
asked your question, you might want to start
contributing the knowledge that you have
gained by helping people that are now in
your previous position. Most online com-
munities are very welcoming to new
members, as they alleviate the work of
more experienced ones. Also, as a new
contributor, you might be able to see
problems from a beginner’s point of view.
You do not have to contribute to the
community by answering questions, as some
communities have a ‘‘wiki-style’’ interface
where you can contribute by editing,
tagging, or flagging questions. In any case,
following at least a few science-related
mailing lists and contributing actively to
them is a great way to come into contact
with researchers working in your field, and
over time can lead you to new collabora-
tions and new opportunities for your career.
Supporting Information
Table S1 List of bioinformatics- and
biology-related mailing lists and commu-
nities.
(DOC)
Text S1 Examples of poorly posed
questions, and how to improve them.
(DOC)
Acknowledgments
This article has been written collaboratively as
an open initiative based on the WikiGenes
platform, at the address http://tinyurl.com/
tenrules-onlinecommunities. We would like to
thank Robert Hoffmann from the Computer
Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cam-
bridge, Massachusetts, for making available the
WikiGenes platform and for the support. We
would also like to acknowledge Nelson Ndegwa
from EMBL-EBI and Daniel Mietchen from
University of Jena for contributions to the draft
of the manuscript.
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