One of the brand new features of the new Nature Network site is the Questions and Answers section. This will allow users to ask for expert advice from other scientists. The service builds on the success of the Nature Protocols discussion forum by targeting questions to community-selected experts and allowing users to rate alternative answers
All users can ask questions or give answers to questions from other members of Nature Network.
Finding the Q&A section
To get started using the Q&A section, click the red Q&A tab at the top right of every page on Nature Network. Alternatively you can also access the Q&A section directly from Your Workbench. Here you will see a list of questions which have been asked. To read the full details of any question and the answers which have been given, click on the question title.
A question categorised “biology”, with one answer.
Asking and answering questions
To ask a question, look for the “Ask a Question” button at the top right of every page within Q&A. You will be presented with a form which will allow you to enter the title and text of your question and select from a drop down list of categories. You can also select whether you want your question to be posed to all users or just Experts. As of the relaunch we don’t currently have any experts – these will be added in time in response to how the community rates the answers of other users.
When you have published your question, you will be taken to a page with a selection of tabs allowing you to see other questions you have asked and answers you have provided.
To answer other people’s questions, you can browse all the questions from the Q&A front page or search for specific questions relating to your area of expertise.
When you see a question you want to answer, click the “Answer” button immediately under the lightbulb icon. TIP: At the moment, you cannot include hyperlinks in your answers. This will be fixed as soon as possible: for the time being, you can still include the URL as plain text.
Rating questions and answers
As well as asking and answering questions, you can help rate the content of Q&A by clicking the “like” button for any questions or answers you think are particularly good. The number of “likes” a question or answer has is shown by the Thumbs-up icon to the right of every question and answer. Highly rated questions and answers may be featured to make them more visible to the community.
When browsing questions, you can sort them by the number of likes, by choronological order, by subject area or by the number of answers they have received. You can also sort answers by number of likes, to put the most useful answers at the top. To do any of this, click the small arrow next to the appropriate title (question, answer, title etc) and select how you want to sort them.
What if an answer is factually incorrect?
If a question or answer is inappropriate or factually inaccurate, you can report it by clicking the “report” button directly underneath. This will send a note to the Nature Network administrators and the questioner who will assess the report and decide whether or not to remove the content. We encourage you to help by posting additional answers where you feel previous answers are confusing or incomplete.
As with all the new sections on the new Nature Network, we’re keen to hear your feedback. Is it useful? What could we do to make it more useful? Let us know at network@nature.com.