Completed work
Create project teams
Develop a project-specific admin team, methods team, and data teams.
Create milestones
Work with MD Methods Development and Monitoring Committee to create reasonable project milestones and deadlines. Identify overall project goals and break down into sub-goals to be accomplished by each project team over specific time periods.
Set up infrastructure
Use tools (e.g., Google Drive, Gmail account, Slack channels, GitHub repos) to host project resources and maintain records that are easy to access and reference by all project members. Design processes and tools with the goal of promoting core principles of transparency and reproducibility. Establish communication expectations within the project teams and for updating the broader MD membership and possible collaborators external to MD (i.e., plan regular updates and project recruitment ads).
Solicit methods ideas
Hold town hall meeting with MD community to solicit ideas about input for methods and participation guidelines.
Generate methods
Work with MD Methods Development and Monitoring Committee to generate project methods. Create detailed documents of the experimental procedure, with supporting video demonstrations where appropriate.
Present methods
Present full draft of methods for feedback from MD community.
Future work
Pilot test
Pilot test methods with subjects from multiple labs. Determine clear abort criteria. Prioritize piloting in diverse labs that work with different populations to robustly test the experimental procedure.
Develop guidelines
Design project participation guidelines for researchers. Determine the authorship requirements and define project contribution areas. Outline participation periods of the project (i.e., lab enrollment window, data collection window).
Pre-register
Write pre-registration materials or registered report and send out for final approval from MD community.
Develop data system
Work with MD Data Management and Open Science Committee to figure out accessible, easy-to-use data entry system.
Develop methods materials
Create relevant methods materials for participating labs, such as methods guide, 'at-a-glance' aids, participant email templates, coding sheets, survey translations, etc.
Recruit labs
Work with MD Communications and Community Building team to advertise the project and recruit participating labs. Plan and implement an advertising strategy in the months leading up to data collection. Aim to recruit labs from diverse geographical regions, or that work with different populations of dogs. Design registration process for participating labs to join MD and sign necessary participation agreements or code of conduct agreements.