STEM

Elsevier Launches Reaxys ChemSearch Challenge

• By Leila Meyer
• 08/18/15

Elsevier, a provider of scientific, technical and medical information products and services, is now accepting registration for 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."

According to Elsevier, scientific output is doubling every nine years and is being distributed through a growing number of digital channels, making it more challenging for chemists to find relevant data quickly. The goal of the ChemSearch Challenge is to measure the relative merits of different approaches to searching chemistry databases and search engines.

Chemists can register online on the ChemSearch Challenge's site or in person at Elsevier's booth at the American Chemical Society's national meeting taking place in Boston, MA August 16-20. The challenge will run for 12 weeks from September to December 2015, and chemists can enter at any time throughout the challenge. Each week the challenge will present a new set of chemistry questions to solve, with weekly prizes and a weekly leaderboard. When the challenge is over, Elsevier will analyze the data collected and report on its findings. Elsevier indicated it hopes the resulting information will help the chemistry community identify and understand bottlenecks in search tools and produce better products for chemists.

Further information and online registration for the Reaxys ChemSearch Challenge can be found on the challenge's site.