Elsevier Creates ChemSearch Challenge to Highlight Efficiencies and Bottlenecks in Finding Relevant Chemistry Information Fast

BOSTON, August 17, 2015 /PRNewswire/ --

Registration for the ChemSearch Challenge Opens at American Chemical Society meeting 2015  

Elsevier, a world-leading provider of scientific, technical and medical information products and services, today announced registration is now open for participation in the Reaxys ChemSearch Challenge, a series of online quizzes that measure how quickly chemists can find the information they need to correctly answer research questions. Chemists can use their preferred chemistry database or search engine, and the response times and score accuracy will be recorded for the contest.

Chemists worldwide are invited to register to participate, either in person at Elsevier's Booth (#231) at the American Chemical Society's national meeting in Boston as of Aug. 16, 2015 or online at http://www.chemistrysearcher.com.

With scientific output doubling every nine years and digital channels proliferating, chemists increasingly face a deluge of data. Without the ability to integrate, access, filter and understand the relevance of the information, comprehensiveness alone can be a burden to chemists. Relying on old search methods in this new world of data may slow the pace of discovery in science. Contemporary chemistry search tools with advanced indexing methods and taxonomies are now available to chemists, enabling them to take the shortest path to relevant and accessible data.

"The results of the ChemSearch Challenge will be especially relevant given the growing burden that information presents to chemists," said, Thibault Géoui, Elseiver's Director of Marketing, Chemistry & Biomedical Solutions. "In an era of ever-expanding information, the most important tool is the filter that enables accessibility of the information. The goal of the ChemSearch Challenge is to measure the relative merits of different search approaches, not only for the benefit of the community at large through the data we collect, but also for the challenge-takers themselves, who can evaluate their own methods against best practices."

The Challenge will run for 12 weeks, from September to December 2015. Chemists can enter at any time during the challenge, with a new set of chemistry questions available weekly to solve. A weekly leaderboard will track the best-performing entrants for each quiz; weekly prizes will also be awarded. Chemists can follow the challenge via the #ChemSearch hashtag and share results with their peers via social media. For more information, or to register for the ChemSearch Challenge, please visit http://www.chemistrysearcher.com.

When the ChemSearch Challenge is complete, Elsevier will analyze the data from all entrants and report on the findings; with the hope of helping the industry as a whole understand the key bottlenecks in search, as well as informing further development of products that support an era of smarter chemistry.

Reaxys^® empowers chemistry research and development by providing structure, property and reaction data, experimental procedures and literature. It is designed to support early drug discovery, education, material selection and synthesis planning; its capabilities include data export and integration to enable harmonized analysis of in-house and external data. Reaxys^® improves R&D productivity by delivering the facts the way chemists need them. Learn more at Elsevier.com/Reaxys.

About Reaxys 

Reaxys^® empowers chemistry research and development by providing structure, property and reaction data, experimental procedures and literature. It is designed to support early drug discovery, education, material selection and synthesis planning; its capabilities include data export and integration to enable harmonized analysis of in-house and external data. Reaxys^® improves R&D productivity by delivering the facts the way chemists need them. http://www.elsevier.com/solutions/reaxys

Reaxys is a trade mark of Reed Elsevier Properties SA, used under license.

About Elsevier 

Elsevier is a world-leading provider of information solutions that enhance the performance of science, health, and technology professionals, empowering them to make better decisions, deliver better care, and sometimes make groundbreaking discoveries that advance the boundaries of knowledge and human progress. Elsevier provides web-based, digital solutions - among them ScienceDirect, Scopus, Elsevier Research Intelligence and ClinicalKey - and publishes more than 2,500 journals, including The Lancet and Cell, and more than 33,000 book titles, including a number of iconic reference works. Elsevier is part of RELX Group plc, a world-leading provider of information solutions for professional customers across industries. http://www.elsevier.com

Media contact
Amy Burnis
Director, Strategic Communications
Elsevier
+1-617-803-8344
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SOURCE Elsevier