Now is the time of the month when I have to look at “the numbers” to see how things are going on Nature Protocols and Protocol Exchange. Since I was doing that anyway I thought I’d share some with you. The thing that most intrigues me is what brings people to the sites; what questions are they trying to answer? Well here are the top 20 search terms that resulted in people coming to Nature Protocols and Protocol Exchange in the last month (linked to the Protocols I imagine they found helpful).

Nature Protocols

1. nature protocols
2. nature protocol
3. multiplex pcr
4. “clonogenic assay “:http://www.nature.com/nprot/journal/v1/n5/abs/nprot.2006.339.html
5. overlap extension pcr
6. blue native page
7. inverse pcr
8. rolling circle amplification
9. pyrosequencing
10. pulsed field gel electrophoresis
11. site directed mutagenesis
12. scratch assay
13. circular dichroism
14. srb assay
15. overlap pcr
16. touchdown pcr
17. trail making test
18. cell culture
19. chromatin immunoprecipitation
20. qpcr

Not so informative really apart from showing that a lot of people need help with their PCR. I’m also surprised that there is so much interest in circular dichroism. But those looking for information are very persistent as the page I assume they are coming to (Using Circular Dichroism Spectra to Estimate Protein Secondary Structure) was on the third page of Google’s search results.

How about the Protocol Exchange:

1. itraq
2. transwell migration assay
3. barnes maze
4. kaiser test
5. nature protocols
6. neurosphere
7. neurosphere assay
8. slic cloning
9. fluorescent in situ hybridization protocol
10. dpph assay protocol
11. immunofluorescence protocol
12. chip assay
13. nature protocol exchange
14. transient transfection
15. transwell assay
16. in utero electroporation
17. neurospheres
18. protocol exchange
19. purify protein complex
20. fluorescence in situ hybridization protocol

That’s a much more diverse list of searches. But there certainly is a desire to know about iTRAQ (which stands for isobaric peptide Tags for Relative and Absolute Quantification if you were in any doubt), and the Protocol Quantitative analysis of protein expression using iTRAQ and mass spectrometry by Ry Y Tweedie-Cullen & Magdalena Livingstone-Zatchej will hopefully have satisfied them.