Category Archives: open issues

NSF/JISC meeting on eScience/cyberinfrastructure

Posted on September 30, 2007 by pm286

I was privileged to be at a meeting between JISC (UK) and NSF (US). Every paragraph of the report is worth reading – I quote a few… William Y. Arms and Ronald L. Larsen, The Future of Scholarly Communication: Building … Continue reading →

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Four theses and a repository

Posted on September 28, 2007 by pm286

I’ve been advocating that all theses should be deposited in institutional repositories under CC-BY licences, and here’s an interlude with 4 I have personal knowledge of. I’m keeping the authors secret, although those in the know will identify some. ONE … Continue reading →

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The Obelisk SMILES

Posted on September 28, 2007 by pm286

We are delighted that Craig James has suggested making the molecular format SMILES an Open activity. Egin Willighagen writes: SMILES to become an Open Standard 08:03 28/09/2007, Egon Willighagen, Craig James wants to make SMILES an open standard, and this … Continue reading →

Posted in blueobelisk, chemistry, open issues | 2 Comments

What's in a name? hexanoic acid still smells of goats

Posted on September 25, 2007 by pm286

In a recent post I said – rather crudely – that there was no absolute way of understanding chemical names. I have been (rightly) taken to task for imprecision: ChemSpiderMan Says: September 25th, 2007 at 5:04 am e I’m not … Continue reading →

Posted in chemistry, open issues | 5 Comments

Structures that InChI and SMILES can't represent

Posted on September 24, 2007 by pm286

Even in organic chemistry there are lots of strucures that cannot be represented by InChIs and currently cannot be communicated without structure diagrams. I’ve gone randomly to Beilstein Journal of Organic Chemistry (as it’s Open Access) and found three consecutive … Continue reading →

Posted in chemistry, open issues | 1 Comment

Truth or beauty, continued

Posted on September 24, 2007 by pm286

Continuing our discussion on whether a chemical strucure diagram is copyrightable. Steven Bachrach Says: September 24th, 2007 at 9:27 pm ePeter, I have to take exception to some of your claims. The chemical formula drawing is not the only way … Continue reading →

Posted in chemistry, open issues | 1 Comment

Beauty is truth, truth beauty – and copyrightable?

Posted on September 24, 2007 by pm286

In (Finding chemical structures – InChIs et al., an amusement) I explored the varied approaches to drawing structures and the problems of representing them. I commented that Totally Synthetic’s diagrams were not only the most unambiguous but also the most … Continue reading →

Posted in chemistry, open issues | 2 Comments

Talis licence for Open Data

Posted on September 24, 2007 by pm286

I used to think Open Data was simple – “facts are not copyrightable” and everything follows. No I am wiser and realise that data are complex and need a lot of attention – fast. So it’s very valuable to see … Continue reading →

Posted in open issues, www2007 | 1 Comment

Finding chemical structures – InChIs et al., an amusement

Posted on September 23, 2007 by pm286

Totally Synthetic, Chemspider and I have been discussing the value of InChIs in blogs. TS’s blog is, of course Openly available under CC licence, and he is widely revered in the community for the beauty and acuuracy of his structural … Continue reading →

Posted in chemistry, open issues | 5 Comments

open access : Thank you American Chemical Society

Posted on September 23, 2007 by pm286

In my reviews of the practice of Open Access (Author Choice in Chemistry at ACS – and elsewhere?) I pointed out that there were deficiences in access and labelling on Open offerings. I’ve now had a reply from Dave Martinsen: … Continue reading →

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