The past illuminates The past illuminates the futurethe future

Phil AbrahamsCustomer Services DirectorRSC Publishing

ACS, Division of Chemical Information13th September 2006

What is knowledge?

“Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information on it. When we enquire into any subject, the first thing we have to do is to know what books have treated of it. This leads us to look at catalogues, and at the backs of books in libraries”

Samuel Johnson, Boswell’s Life of Johnson

Knowledge accumulates…

“If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants”

Isaac Newton, 1675

…like plankton

• Distinct pieces of structured content that live…

Knowledge blooms

…and interact

Bedrock

• It dies• Covered by later

sedimentary layers of content

• (Listen to the snapping sound of an over-stretched analogy)

The RSC “Bedrock”/Archive

• Archive launched December 2003• Now 1841-2004 articles• 1.4m pages, 240,000 articles

o All content (+ adverts)o XML abstracts 1965ffo ↔ Reference linking 1990ff o 200Gb data

• Athens-authenticated access

Pricing model

• Outright purchaseo Self-hosto RSC-host + nominal maintenance fee

• Annual lease

• Consortia/multi-site

Functionality

• Searcho Full-texto Bibliographico Abstract

• Reference links post-1990, back & forth

• CAS links• British Chemical

Abstracts (i.e. pre-CAS)

Usage patterns

• http://rsc.org/Publishing/librarians/SuperArchiveTop10.asp

• 2nd most popular producto after Chemical Communicationso 14% total usage

• Anecdotal usefulness of British Chemical Abstractso 10s of years of abstracting all

chemical literature before CAS starts

(Just in case)• 1. Synthesis of thiol-derivatised gold nanoparticles in a two-phase Liquid–Liquid system

Mathias Brust, Merryl Walker, Donald Bethell, David J. Schiffrin and Robin Whyman                                        Journal of the Chemical Society, Chemical Communications, 1994

• 2. Molecular beam studies of the interaction of oxygen with silver surfaces

David A. Butler, Age Raukema and Aart W. KleynJournal of the Chemical Society, Faraday Transactions, 1996

• 3. Synthesis and reactions of functionalised gold nanoparticles

M. Brust, J. Fink, D. Bethell, D. J. Schiffrin and C. KielyJournal of the Chemical Society, Chemical Communications, 1995

• 4. Rules for ring closure

Jack E. BaldwinJournal of the Chemical Society, Chemical Communications, 1976

• 5. The preparation and properties of tris(triphenylphosphine)halogenorhodium(I) and some reactions thereof including catalytic homogeneous hydrogenation of olefins and acetylenes and their derivatives

J. A. Osborn, F. H. Jardine, J. F. Young and G. WilkinsonJournal of the Chemical Society A: Inorganic, Physical, Theoretical, 1966

• 6. Preparation and use of tetra-n-butylammonium per-ruthenate (TBAP reagent) and tetra-n-propylammonium per-ruthenate (TPAP reagent) as new catalytic oxidants for alcohols

William P. Griffith, Steven V. Ley, Gwynne P. Whitcombe and Andrew D. WhiteJournal of the Chemical Society, Chemical Communications, 1987

• 7. Recent advances in the chemistry of noble gas elements

N. K. JhaRoyal Institute of Chemistry, Reviews, 1971

• 8. CCLXXI.—Degradation of quaternary ammonium salts. Part III

Thomas Stevens Stevens, William Whitelaw Snedden, Eric Thomas Stiller and Thomas ThomsonJournal of the Chemical Society (Resumed), 1930

• 9. A study of the nucleation and growth processes in the synthesis of colloidal gold

John Turkevich, Peter Cooper Stevenson and James HillierDiscussions of the Faraday Society, 1951

• 10. A new method for the deoxygenation of secondary alcohols

Derek H. R. Barton and Stuart W. McCombieJournal of the Chemical Society, Perkin Transactions 1, 1975

Example of use

• Historic reference– A historical study of structures for

communication of organic chemistry information prior to 1950 (Dr Helen Cooke, OBC, 2004, (22),3179-3191DOI: 10.1039/B409980J )

Usage patterns

Usage patterns (normalised)

DOI Redirects

Total DOI redirects:CrossRef June 2006 Actuals

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

900

1000

186218761883189418981907190919121915192019221924192619281930193219341936193819401942194419461948195019521954195619581960196219641966196819701972197419761978198019821984198619881990199219941996

Total DOI redirects

How the future will re-illuminate the past…

• Linking’s the thing:• Tag chemicals• Link to resources• Link experimental data• Use InChI• Classify• Improved views• Scalable

How the future will re-illuminate the past…

• Text miningo Subject termso Ontologieso Chemicalso Roll-out on current papers 2007, then

Archive…

• Automated subject mapping (e.g. Ali Baba)

• Researcher-links (e.g PubMed)

…Through the looking glass

• Chemicals

• Subjects

• People

What’s next?

• Content-tagging to allow:o Package-specific archiveso Journal-specific archiveso Pre-launched journal content

• Functionality mark up to allowo Books archive

What’s next?

• RSC Books Archiveo 750 digitised bookso Googling: full text,

chapter-by-chaptero On sale now – booth

#622-5o Launching November

at Online Information, London

o One-time fee - £9000 ($17000)

Where does the money go?

• Technical & product investments• Research grants• Support networks – local + international• Teacher training• Chemistry communication• Conferences• Policy support/Policy execution• Campaign for chemical sciences

http://www.rsc.org/AboutUs/CampaignsStrategy/C4CS/index.asp

Summing up

• Highest use T-5y – but:• Long tail of usage• Searching options are key• Usage boosted from date of

o Abstract search capabilityo Reference linking capability

• More sales, different emphasis, expected• More functionality being added• Your money returns to chemistry

Thank you: Questions

Phil Abrahams

E: abrahamsp@rsc.org

T: 0044 1223 432301

F: 0044 1223 426017