The protocol handbook: Contents and rationale

The Handbook of Protocols and Methodology describes the parameters that are measured and/or calculated in the SolACE project, and it indicates according to which protocols the measurements or calculations are conducted. Moreover, the Handbook includes the definitions of central concepts that are of key importance to the project, which shall be interpreted the same way throughout SolACE. The Handbook focuses primarily on the parameters and definitions that are used by more than one project partner, and it sets – wherever possible – common guidelines for conducting measurements and calculations. The purpose of the Handbook is to guarantee methodological consistency within the project, and, where possible, the comparability of results – regardless of whether it is greenhouse, field, or laboratory investigations. Because of the above-mentioned reasons, the Handbook is a “living document”, ready for development throughout the project. Its content evolves together with the project, considering the possible changes and adaptations that inherent to scientific work.

The Handbook does not intend to repeat detailed protocols that can be cited from available literature, but it aims to document which protocols have been chosen to ensure that SolACE partners have a common understanding and approach for specific tasks. In case it is not possible to harmonize methodologies and protocols for a topic, the Handbook will indicate all applied methods, and will include the reasoning behind this decision. This way, we aim to keep track of the logical development of the project, and make sure that methods and protocols are discussed and thought through within the consortium, in order to achieve as much coherence and transparency as possible.
A further aim of the Handbook is to design a system for collecting and managing the data generated from the literature review, data mining, and new investigations during SolACE. For this purpose, guidelines for the collection, storage, and quality control of data are included in the Handbook. The Handbook describes the standards to use for the data collection, and it is used by all workpackages.

The development of the Handbook is part of workpackage 1.