Distill

Overview

Our goal is to communicate the results of our fellows' work in a science-as-it-gets-done format with minimal overhead, with focus on including the motivation, chronology of the work, and evolution of projects rather than emphasizing only positive results and omitting all of the above.

In our sharing of technical reports so far, we have chosen a "module" based structure to optimize for readibility and ease-of-use while providing complete, transparent research findings.

The Distill format is very flexible. We use a modified template that we have tailored for the format of short reports in the computational and experimental life sciences.

Guidelines for our technical reports

Introduction

Content: Background on this specific project and significance; not a survey of the whole field. Include details on your personal inspiration for undertaking this work; was there a beautiful paper that stuck in your mind or that guided your initial experiments? Do not repeat sections from your synthesis essay (OK to link to it), and do not include a paragraph of your results (as you might see at the end of the Introduction in a standard journal article). Just convince the reader that yours is a compelling and worthwhile project, without giving away too much.
Length guideline: ⅔ page

Project Overview (schematic figure)

At the end of the Introduction, please include a “Figure 1” schematic. This should be a cartoon-like diagram that shows the general goals of your project, similar to Page 1 of a Cell paper (an example). Does not need to follow this format exactly – for fellows who already have a goals or experiments schematic, they have generally looked great.

Strategy in a nutshell

In a few sentences, describe the general scope and strategy/approach for the work to be done over the summer, including goals and planned approaches. (This can be considered the closest part to an abstract, and introduce the most important modules to follow. It’s ok if not all parts were actually accomplished!)
Length guideline: ½ page

Modules

There should be 3-5 of these. The first module might be, say, “design” or “computational”, wherein you describe your computational tools or analyses. Organize your results into whatever modules seem most obvious (we can also give comments about suggested modules).

Content: A first-person account of what you did, and the main results, for each module. Importantly, your personal account should emphasize logical flow and readability (unlike a standard materials and methods section!). While the modules should include all key details, like cell strain and plasmids etc, some of this can be relegated to linked tables or protocols (ex: the full primer/ construct sequences or the settings for a centrifugation). Examples:

“To begin the project, I designed 265 peptide sequences using a custom-made computational algorithm. The algorithm is described in detail in the [Appendix](link) of this document. Each peptide was ordered from [protein synthesis company], delivered, and then fused to a silicon grid using [X linker sequence]. I confirmed that the peptides successfully linked to the grid using [some specific method] (Figure 2).”
“To make the receptor binding domain (RBD) of the spike protein, I got a readily cloned [pCRNA3.1(-) vector construct containing the Wuhan-Hu-1 Spike Glycoprotein Receptor Binding Domain] from [BEI Resources]. I then transfected this construct into [Expi293F cells] to produce the RBD following the protocol in [Pishesha et. al 2021.]”

No need for too many hardcore details; if a protocol is sufficiently important, please write out its steps, place it in the Appendix, and link to it; do not repeat its nitty-gritty steps in the text of each module.

Finally, please include images / figures in-line. So if you confirmed that a peptide fusion worked as expected, include the relevant HPLC or LC-MS or whatever image directly in the module. Write a figure legend for each figure. Figures should not be blurry; they should be data saved directly from a computer.

Each module should end with a brief description of its results.
Length guideline: 2 - 4 paragraphs per module.

Conclusion

Content: Briefly wrap up and summarize the key results. Clearly articulate what you would do next in your project, given enough time. How did the project go overall? What can others learn from your work? Perhaps comment on your personal development, or key insights, or what you learned about your own career. Make this personal, while putting a bowtie on your efforts.
Length guideline: 2-4 paragraphs (if what you’ve already written is longer, this is also OK)

Appendix

Content: All primer sequences, DNA sequences, peptide sequences, and protocols. Do not put figures in the appendix; all figures should be included in their relevant module. Add bookmarks to each Appendix item, and ensure that it is linked to from within the main text.
Length guideline: No limit.

Other notes on general style

It’s OK to use first-person language. All jargon should be defined in-sentence upon first use (e.g. I fused the EK11 protein – a domain first isolated from S. nikoensis bacteria – to the core protein.)

Total length of the report should be 6-8 pages (not including figures and appendix). Each module should only be a few paragraphs.

If you have not already written a more formal ‘materials and methods’ section, that’s OK; just write protocols (e.g. Step 1, Step 2, Step 3) for the KEY methods in the paper. Hyperlink to your methods, primers, sequences, etc. from within your main text (In Google docs, Bookmarks can be used by going to Insert → Bookmark).

Since you might be moving text around quite a bit across drafts, we'd suggest holding off on a bibliography or references list at the start; it’s OK to just hyperlink to all relevant papers and citations directly in the text.