The OA PubChem from the US National Library of Medicine and non-OA DiscoveryGate from Elsevier MDL are now linked. DiscoveryGate subscribers get full access to both systems. PubChem users get free searching of both systems, and full access to PubChem results, but can only click through to DiscoveryGate content if they have a license. For example, see how DiscoveryGate structures show up in PubChem searches. From today's announcement:
Elsevier MDL and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have linked databases to make it easier and quicker for academic, government, pharmaceutical and other researchers to obtain more comprehensive information, improve decision making and support discovery breakthroughs. The NIH’s freely available PubChem database of small molecule data, designed to support links to outside chemical information resources, is now cross-indexed with the Compound Index hosted on Elsevier MDL’s DiscoveryGate® platform. “Now, researchers can immediately tell if information related to a specific chemical compound exists in the other system,” said Steve Bryant, director of the PubChem project. “From DiscoveryGate, links connect researchers directly to the relevant information from PubChem. Likewise, researchers using PubChem can link to additional information in DiscoveryGate (appropriate licenses required for accessing DiscoveryGate data sources). This integrated information provision improves the scientific community’s ability to rapidly conduct thorough research.” Lars Barfod, CEO of Elsevier MDL, added: “The value of DiscoveryGate is focused information, relevant to specific research questions, from a network of indexed and linked data sources. This collaboration with the NIH to index PubChem extends the scope of available content, and will help researchers find critical information while avoiding unnecessary, repetitious searches of multiple systems or data sources.”
PS: This isn't the first time a non-OA service has linked up with PubChem. Nature Chemical Biology from the NPG did so in June 2005.
Posted by
Peter Suber at 3/22/2006 08:11:00 AM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
