Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Beta testers wanted for synthesis review site

Davin - 16-4-2014 at 22:15

Hi Everyone,

I have spent the last few months putting together a website that allows users to review syntheses, whether from a paper, patent, or even a procedure found here on Sciencemadness :D, in addition to posting unique new syntheses, with full credit given to the user that posts it.

With this, I hope to establish a community of synthetically-experienced people who enjoy calling out the literature for what works and what does not, with the end goal of being a scifinder-like resource that collects syntheses from all mediums, and allows quick searching for how to make something, with easy filtering by how well a procedure works as crowd sourced from the user base.

Of course, the field of synthetic chemistry is vast. I have been testing the site with a few syntheses from my field (explosives) however beyond wanting significant other topics covered for content, I am looking for other pairs of eyes currently, to add reviews of literature syntheses for testing purposes to make sure the site is fully functional before full launch to the greater community.

The site will be free to use to anyone, and will not discriminate based on location of synthesis, whether in academia, industry, or your backyard ;) And I can only hope it will foster greater collaboration between these groups, in my field I know we find sites like this useful.

If you are interested in helping making this resource as great as possible, send a U2U or post here and I will provide links to create an account. I am not posting the link yet as the site is not ready to go live yet and may have some bugs. But below is a screenshot of how this works.

Thanks,
Davin




sitepreview.JPG - 38kB

elementcollector1 - 16-4-2014 at 22:19

I'm not sure how you intend this to work. Do you mean for members to post reviews of the syntheses detailing their own personal experiences, or simply what works and what doesn't?
If the former, this could be an interesting compendium of commentary, and could be very useful - if the latter, this would be useful in the strictly academic sense.

Davin - 16-4-2014 at 22:23

The site covers both of these. Members can post a full commentary with photos on a unique or literature synthesis, or a simple "this does not work" can be added to call out a procedure that is out there.

plante1999 - 17-4-2014 at 03:01

Looks familiar to an idea I had a while ago, but not many where interested. I had worked on something like that on my side, but I was not near to be done, maybe only in a year or two.

I will help as much as I can.

smaerd - 18-4-2014 at 03:27

I'd love to help out. Just let me know. I know ResearchGate recently started a new type of peer commentary on publications. This seems more useful due to my interests.

TheChemiKid - 18-4-2014 at 08:11

I would help as well. This is a very interesting idea.

Davin - 18-4-2014 at 21:27

Thanks, check your U2Us in a few minutes for details!:)

elementcollector1 - 18-4-2014 at 21:37

I would be interested in helping as well.

Davin - 18-4-2014 at 21:51

U2U sent.

plante1999 - 19-4-2014 at 03:01

A problem I seem to have is that people do not put appropriate pictures and provide no paper/information's. I think you could solve that issue by providing support for PDF documents. As such, procedures that where not published could still be reported.

Davin - 19-4-2014 at 09:42

Plante,

Do you mean on the site, or in general?

For example, on the site if you click on "(site name) exclusive" You can enter a full synthesis with as much referencing as you want, and then upload pictures once it is posted. But I do like your thinking, that you could write your own paper, in whatever format you want, and then upload it to the site.

I have wrote to the big 3 major science publishers, and they would not even allow copy/paste paper excerpts, so while reference citations for prior art are of course encouraged, hosting full papers would get them after me for copyrights, and as you have noticed, I am not anonymous at all.

Of course, with a synthesis from the literature, there is the "reference link" to expedite linking to the literature.

If I misinterpreted your comment, let me know.


[Edited on 19-4-2014 by Davin]

plante1999 - 19-4-2014 at 14:45

I get that you can't copy paste anything from the main references provider, however if I where to make a paper, it could not be published anywhere since I don't have any chemistry degree, but it could be uploaded on the website since I made it.

Davin - 19-4-2014 at 15:06

I like it. Implementing.

chemrox - 19-4-2014 at 15:51

I like it. How does one implement?

Manifest - 19-4-2014 at 17:38

This sounds like a brilliant idea, I would love to see it work.

elementcollector1 - 21-4-2014 at 17:22

So, I posted the well-known potassium synthesis as a test. Writing a review worked well. I later wanted to upload a picture for the reaction itself, however, when I click on the edit button, it states I don't have permission...?

Davin - 21-4-2014 at 17:28

Thanks, yes the edit button for a review currently does not work, but it will soon.

Feel free to add the photo as a new review. If all goes well it will just add the photo and not add a new review.



[Edited on 22-4-2014 by Davin]

elementcollector1 - 21-4-2014 at 17:30

Works for me.

Davin - 21-4-2014 at 17:31

Also, the lack of a reaction scheme and reference link, was this intentional, or was there a site error after adding the page?

[Edited on 22-4-2014 by Davin]

elementcollector1 - 21-4-2014 at 17:32

It requires one to upload a picture as the reaction scheme - I would have preferred to type out what we believe to be the reactions - keeping in mind, of course, that we don't really know for sure. So, I guess it was intentional.

Davin - 21-4-2014 at 17:37

Something else to go into the FAQ and revisions then:D

Not looking for a mechanism, just a simple X + Y --> Z

Thanks for your help :)

Etaoin Shrdlu - 22-4-2014 at 13:46

Quote: Originally posted by Davin  
Not looking for a mechanism, just a simple X + Y --> Z

That's a pity. I would love to see a platform for crowd-sourcing information on reactions/reagents/products, similar to but with the possibility to go more in-depth than what organic-chemistry has now.

Davin - 22-4-2014 at 15:07

That sort of info is not precluded from upload at all. The info I was giving was merely for one field in the site. :)

Etaoin Shrdlu - 22-4-2014 at 16:00

Oh, very cool. I misunderstood. Looking forward to seeing how this plays out.

[Edited on 4-23-2014 by Etaoin Shrdlu]

Davin - 27-6-2014 at 15:04

Everyone:

The site is now live! www.synvaluate.com

I have a bunch of reactions up there, but making this sort of site a good resource to the community will require lots of content. I hope those that are making cool stuff at home will contribute their feedback on procedures.

The site also has the ability to publish your own syntheses, so if you are contributing to prepublication here, consider uploading your work on the site as well as it will be easily indexed by the search engine. I already published an improved prep of 1-amino-1,2,3-triazole on the site, instead of it going in the usual type of journal!

Let me know your thoughts on the site.