Open Chemistry

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General concept and specific project.



Beth Ritter-Guth:

""open chemistry" is defined as the sharing of chemical data for free use, distribution, and modification. However, not all persons who believe in the philosophy of sharing agree on the process (when and how the information should be shared). The term "Open Data" is used most frequently by Peter Murray-Rust to describe the work he does to share information with other chemists; his pioneering efforts, along with Henry Rzepa, creating the Chemical Markup Language (CML) have great potential to change the process by which chemical information is shared within the community. Open Source Science is a phrase used most frequently by Jean-Claude Bradley and refers to the sharing all experimental data, including failed experiments, in open access formats (blogs, wikis, and other RSS technology). Open Standards generally refers to the process by which chemical information is shared; in the open chemistry community, there are several formats to share information. Among them, CML and InChi are just a tiny sample of the variety of out-put formats available. One of the problems in establishing a unifying process is that there are many more out-put formats and there is not one “standard” reader." (


Beth Ritter-Guth:

"Outsiders may not realize that practicing chemists and collaboration sites share a core philosophy but function differently in the "open community." For example, Jean-Claude Bradley, an Organic Chemist from Drexel University, supplies all data from his lab including failed experiments that would, otherwise, not find placement in journals or repositories. In supplying failed experimental data, he hopes to prevent others from making similar mistakes (interview). His goal is to provide the "thinking behind the chemistry.” Peter Murray-Rust, a chemist from Cambridge, shares successful data through his Chemical Markup Language. Other organizations like Chemists without Borders and The Synaptic Leap function as collaboration sites to help chemists work together on similar projects. The Blue Obelisk is a site that provides a place for chemists to share and discuss ideas relevant to the technology of sharing data. Collaboration sites are useful, but they do not necessarily publish data. What is most striking about all of these groups is that they all agree about the principle of sharing with one another; the question to explore will be whether or not "when" is as important as "why."" (

More Information

  1. Open Chemistry Position Statement. By Chemists Without Borders.
  2. Antony Williams on Open Science, Open Chemistry and ChemSpider
  3. See Open Science for a general overview.

Open source chemistry tools

Sam Rose:

some open source apps that do chemical calculation/simulation, drawing\:

OpenChemistry Project

= The purpose of OpenChemistry is to make chemistry learning content free, open and available to the world with the aim of creating a community of educators, students and lifetime learners who are interested in producing and consuming original content in chemistry. [1]