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Tool delves into journal experimental details
A Dublin-based startup has developed a way of extracting insight into laboratory instruments and materials from the experimental sections of journal articles. As Scrazzl launches its first products Siân Harris finds out more
T
here has been plenty of excitement about publishers opening up their data to be used in new applications. The vision is that new tools will emerge that help researchers in ways that may not have been thought of by publishers and could not easily be provided by publishers themselves.
This idea seems to fit very well with the plans of Irish startup Scrazzl, which launched its first products at the end of February, having just finalised a deal to use Elsevier’s SciVerse data. Scrazzl’s business plan is based around the information in the experimental sections of papers and has its roots in its founders’ own experiences of research. As the company’s managing director David Kavanagh, who did a PhD in cell biology, explained, ‘When we were doing our own research we realised the lack of structured data about the materials and tools used and a lack of good, qualitative information about products.’
He recognised that when an individual researcher or lab wants to purchase anything from a simple reagent to a large-scale and expensive laboratory equipment it would help to have a little insight into how it has been used in research elsewhere and what
28 Research Information APR/MAY 2012 Scrazzl launched its first products in February, having finalised a deal to use Elsevier’s SciVerse data
other researchers think of that product. Scrazzl aims to address that gap by providing links between products in scholarly papers and the
companies that produce
them, product reviews about them and other papers reporting research using the same tools. Kavanagh likens it to the travel site TripAdvisor.
‘I was at a meeting and met a product manager at Elsevier just as they were starting to open up their APIs and we realised that the methods section of papers mentions equipment all the time,’ he explained. ‘Scientists could benefit from applications using this, but we could also make money
‘There is also a social element to Scrazzl, making connections between people and previous uses of the product’
from it. It makes sense for scientists and for the companies that supply materials and equipment and it is also scaleable and a value-add for publishers.’
The Scrazzl application pulls all the
product information out of a journal paper and organises that information by company. This is supplemented with links to product descriptions and user-generated content such as product reviews. It can also link with inventory control so that a researcher can see that their lab does have a sample of, for example, a particular antibody and in which freezer it is stored. There is also a social element to Scrazzl, making connections between people and previous uses of the product. Scientists log in to the tool and can then make connections with other users of the same products and ask questions about the products. ‘When you run into technical problems you often go back to primary literature. This makes it much easier,’ pointed out Kavanagh.
The anticipated revenue from this, which is shared with the publishers that provide
www.researchinformation.info
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