1. Can you track back your previous communication with a user?
2. Do your users use the information you provide?
3. Do you provide your users with written documents describing the facility rules, procedures and users’ obligations?  
4. Do you provide training material/resources/handout/video?
5. Are the processes at your core facility clearly described in SOPs?  
6. Are you involved in experimental design?   
7. Do you provide protocols on sample preparation to your users?   
8. If the user experiences an unexpected problem using some equipment, does he know who to contact and does he/she contact him/her?   
9. Do you have a data management plan and inform your users how the data are managed at your facility? (regarding data naming, saving, transferring and long-term storage)
10. Do you provide guidance or train the user on how to analyse raw data? 
11. Do you define how the documentation of the whole experiment will be shared between the CF and the user (who will do what)?    
12. Do you provide support for writing the “materials & methods” section for a publication?     
13. Do you have quality checkpoints implemented in your facility?   
14. Are you regularly training your staff, going to conferences and keeping up with technology?  
15. Are you part of a core facility association?    
16. Would you like to have the communication with your users improved?
17. How well can you motivate your users to follow your advice or rules?
18. Do you discuss and define precisely who (CF staff, user, PI, other) is responsible for what (each step of the experimental procedure) at the core facility?
19. If the user works at the facility, do you give them hands-on training to transmit tacit knowledge?  
20. Do you keep records of all the samples, reagents, freezer content, etc in an electronic form?  
21. Are all relevant controls included for each experiment?  
22. Is the sample quality checked before data acquisition?  
23. Do you provide written instructions or supervision on how to operate each equipment? 
24. Is there a quality control mechanism in place to check whether the data was analysed and interpreted correctly?  
25. Is the documentation complete (regarding the steps taking place at the CF)?  
26. Do you have the possibility to check or improve the users’ manuscripts?    
27. Are you organizing regular reviews of your facility (audit or self-review)?
28. Does your website include a login area where the users can access personal information like “booking”, “forms”, “SOPs”, “protocols”, “raw data” or “billing status”?   
29. Do you know about the possibility of acquiring a unique ID (e.g. RRID at https://scicrunch.org/resources) for your core facility to make yourself visible and referenceable?     
30. You regularly train/retrain your staff about standard technical procedures.
31. You spend too much time on management tasks.
32. Both staff and users know where to find the SOPs.
33. Your users can find basic information like “service provided”, “equipment list”, “pricing”, “contact and directions” on your website.   
34. Your CF has a system in place allowing the identification of raw data behind a published figure.
35. Your staff also receives soft skills training (e.g. communication skills, customer service, management).
36. The quality checkpoints you perform are at strategical steps and span the whole procedure.   
37. Do you have a face-to-face meeting with your users before they start working at your core facility?
38. Do the users follow your advice?
39. Is it clear who will perform each step and who will supervise/check it?   
40. Do you keep user training records?
41. You regularly update/train your staff about the latest technological developments.
42. Both staff and users can easily access the SOPs at all times.
43. Are you using a management software or a home-made management system to help you to be more efficient? (e.g. to deal with bookings and billing)
44. Do you give your users additional tips and tell them about common mistakes to avoid?   
45. If you are aware of poor sample quality, do you tell the user about the potential consequences and drawbacks of proceeding with them?  
46. Do you make it clear for your users which parts of the protocols can be modified and which ones cannot (and why)?  
47. Do you define who will analyse the raw data and who will check the correctness of the analysis (CF staff, PI, another scientist…)?    
48. Do you give advice to your users (about data naming, transfer and storage) to make sure data are traceable, searchable and complete?  
49. Do you provide guidance to the users how to document the procedure optimally? 
50. Do your users inform you before submitting a manuscript containing data acquired at your CF?     
51. The quality checkpoints you perform are sufficient to ensure research quality.   
52. Are you using user’s feedback and staff’s feedback forms?    
53. Your website is regularly updated.    
54. You are going to dedicated meetings/conferences for core facilities.   

 

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