Utilizing open source software to facilitate communication of chemistry at RSC - Open Source Software in Life Science Research - page 76

knitting it into our applications. We generally fi nd that documentation
suffi ces for our needs, or that our development staff can understand the
code even without complete documentation.
The true collaborative benefi ts of platforms such as ChemSpider will
be felt as the multitude of online resources are integrated into federated
searches and semantic web linking in a manner that single queries can be
distributed across the myriad of resources to provide answers through a
single interface. There is a clear trend in life sciences towards more open
access to chemistry data. In the near future this may provide additional
pre-competitive data allowing the development of federated systems such
as the Open PHACTS [60], using ChemSpider as an integral part of the
chemistry database and search engine. The Open PHACTS platform will
allow pharmaceutical companies to link data across the abundance of life
science databases that are already and will increasingly become available.
ChemSpider is likely to become one of the foundations of the semantic
web for chemistry and, with an ongoing focus for enabling collaboration
and integration for life sciences, will be an essential resource for future
generations.

3.7 Acknowledgments

ChemSpider is the result of the aggregate work of many contributors. All
core ChemSpider development is led by Valery Tkachenko (Chief
Technology Offi cer) and we are indebted to our colleagues involved in
the development of much of the software discussed in this chapter. These
include Sergey Shevelev, Jonathan Steele and Alexey Pshenichnov. Our
RSC platforms are supported by a dedicated team of IT specialists that is
second to none. The authors acknowledge the support of the open source
community, the commercial software vendors (specifi cally Accelrys,
ACD/Labs, GGA Software Inc., OpenEye Software Inc., Dotmatics
Limited), many data providers, curators and users for their contributions
to the development of the data content in terms of breadth and quality.

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3.8 References

1. Project Prospect. [Accessed September 2011]; Available from: http://www.
rsc.org/Publishing/Journals/ProjectProspect/FAQ.asp
2. Royal Society of Chemistry acquires ChemSpider. [Accessed September 22nd
2011]; Available from: http://www.rsc.org/AboutUs/News/PressReleases/
2009/ChemSpider.asp