Profiling common types of research data and methods published by organic synthesis chemists at the University of Michigan

Abstract

Objectives: The goal of this research was to create a landscape of organic synthetic chemistry data by manually analyzing a small but representative group of publications. Through this analysis, we hope to gain a better understanding of the various kinds of data and method entities and any associated attributes reported in the literature to inform upcoming metadata standards in this field. Methods: Publications authored by principal investigators (PIs) in the University of Michigan’s chemistry department that self-identify organic chemistry as their research area were collected. Only publications within the scope of organic synthetic chemistry published between 2012-2013 were included for analysis. Publications (including any supplementary information) were carefully examined and data and method information was recorded in the relational database. We identified specific data and method entities and any corresponding attributes, such as metadata and provenance. We compared the published names of the data and method types to the Chemical Methods Ontology (published by the Royal Society of Chemistry) to determine if they correspond. We then created profiles about each data and method type as well as their relationships. Results: Analysis of these publications generated 969 total pieces of data information, 111 different data types, 1308 total pieces of method information and 53 different method types.