Against the Grain

Volume 24 | Issue 4 Article 19

September 2012 I Hear the Train A Comin'-An Interview with , Managing Director of Greg Tananbaum ScholarNext Consulting, [email protected]

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Recommended Citation Tananbaum, Greg (2012) "I Hear the Train A Comin'-An Interview with Timo Hannay, Managing Director of Digital Science," Against the Grain: Vol. 24: Iss. 4, Article 19. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7771/2380-176X.6187

This document has been made available through Purdue e-Pubs, a service of the Purdue University Libraries. Please contact [email protected] for additional information. I Hear the Train A Comin’ — An Interview with Timo Hannay, Managing Director of Digital Science Column Editor: Greg Tananbaum (ScholarNext Consulting) www.scholarnext.com

Column Editor’s Note: Timo Hannay is managing research laboratories, from Managing Director of Digital Science. He consumables to protocols. previously worked at its sister organization, • ReadCube (http://www.readcube.com/): Publishing Group, where he was An application for organising, retrieving, director of nature.com. Before that he was annotating, and discovering research a research neurophysiologist (in Oxford and content. Tokyo), journalist (at The Economist and • SureChem (https://surechem.com/): Nature), and management consultant (at Open chemical patent search with amaz- McKinsey & Co.). I recently interviewed ing technology for turning text and im- Timo about Digital Science, a teaser of sorts ages into searchable structures. for Timo’s appearance at the Charleston • Symplectic Elements (http://www.sym- Conference this November. — GT plectic.co.uk/): Automatically keep track of the publications of all researchers in What is Digital Science? an institution. TH: We’re a software company that focus- There are several more internal projects and es on meeting the needs of scientists — as well external investments, but we’re not ready to as others who support the research process, announce them yet, so I’ll stop there. such as funders and institutional managers. We What are some examples of how Macmil- elaborate on this on our Website: http://www. lan or others have used some of these Digital digital-science.com/. We’re also a division of Science-developed products/services to better . This might seem like support the research process? a strange place for a software company to grow by that company. However, we have built the TH: ReadCube is available in a browser- up, but in fact it makes perfect sense because business, in large part, by investing in and based form on nature.com, and you can expect Macmillan (like all publishers) is an informa- working with a variety startup companies. It to see it on other journal Websites soon. Lab- tion company and has long served the scientific turns out that, although the large incumbents in guru provides its users with access to protocols market. So providing information technology this area are rather predictable and slow-mov- from Nature Publishing Group and Sigma. for scientists is a natural progression, especially ing, there are a lot of great things happening scores and links are popping up all in a digital age. Where Macmillan differs in early-stage companies, mostly set up by over the academic Web from BioMed Cen- from most other publishers, in my opinion, former researchers. Rather than trying to repeat tral and Frontiers to . SureChem is in having the courage of its convictions. If what they’re already doing, we’ve chosen to has a collaboration with the Royal Society you look around the industry, it’s generally identify the very best and work with them. Our of Chemistry to create an open, linked Web very conservative, and change is both slow portfolio companies include the creators of of chemistry information that spans journals, and reactive. Fortunately Macmillan is very 1DegreeBio, Labguru, ReadCube, BioRAFT, chemical compound databases, and patents. I different. and Symplectic Elements. This has given us could go on, but hopefully you get the idea. How did it come to be? a wonderful global network of talented and highly-motivated people who share our mis- Even with all this happening, we’ve only just TH: I previously worked at Nature sion and really understand scientists’ needs. I scratched the surface of what’s possible. Publishing Group, the scientific publishing sometimes wish they weren’t quite as spread How are new ideas identified, developed, arm of Macmillan, where I helped to run the out around the world, but at least we’re helping released, and managed? online business. We noticed that, as scientific to keep a few airlines in business. ;) TH: There’s no single route to great ideas, information became increasingly digital and or even great execution, so we have a multiplic- connected, more and more opportunities arose What projects have come out of it to date? ity of ways. We began Digital Science with to serve the information needs of researchers a carefully considered plan for the areas in not only by providing them with great content TH: Here’s a list of the main ones that we which we wanted to be active, driven mainly but also by providing them with great software have so far: by our assessment of unmet needs and business tools. This led to a wide variety of projects • 1DegreeBio (http://1degreebio.org/): A models that were ripe for disruption. We then involving scientific databases, online social Website to help scientists select the best tried to identify who was already doing good applications, and so on. But it also became in- antibodies and other reagents for their things in those areas and investigated the pos- creasingly evident to us that long-term success research. sibility of partnering with them. That led to the in this field would require the establishment of • Altmetric (http://www.altmetric.com/): A investments I’ve already mentioned, as well as a separate business dedicated to developing a few other collaborations. Where we felt that software. This is because technology busi- system to follow and measure the online conversations about research papers. there was no one already working to fill a gap, nesses need different priorities, structures, and we assembled our own teams and began devel- cultures to content businesses. So we created • BioRAFT: A Web-based system for oping our own products, though this obviously a new division called Digital Science in 2010 institutions to manage laboratory safety takes longer. Since then, most of the good ideas and launched it in December of that year. What and provide relevant training to research have come either from within (Altmetric and started as a tiny team consisting of myself and staff. Figshare were both creations of Digital Sci- two others has now grown into a global group • Figshare (http://figshare.com): An online ence colleagues) or from external connections of over 100 amazing people. service for storing, sharing, and citing (for example, recipients of our Catalyst Grants: What is the corporate structure and back- research data, and giving credit to those http://www.catalystgrant.org/). ing? who do it. Before taking any idea forward we ask TH: Digital Science itself is a division • Labguru (http://www.labguru.com/): A ourselves some very basic questions: Will this of Macmillan and wholly owned and funded Web-based service for organising and continued on page 61

60 Against the Grain / September 2012 TH: I’m not sure that it is. We don’t need and was part of the team that cooked up the I Hear the Train A Comin’ a different approach to innovation than hap- idea of Digital Science. Annette Thomas, from page 60 pens elsewhere (e.g., in consumer markets), Macmillan’s CEO, then asked me to run it. but we do need innovation, and there’s been After considering this deeply for about a mil- product or service genuinely help scientists? far too little of that in the area of information lisecond, I said yes. Are we a good organisation to provide it? Is services for science. The Web was created just What has surprised you most about the it likely to become economically self-sustain- over 20 years ago for the specific purpose of ing? And does it bring something valuable development of new ideas within the scientific enabling scientists to share information with realm? to our other existing projects? If the answers each other, yet today consumer and business to all those questions are yes, and if we can activities dominate. Scientists have better tools TH: I’m continually surprised by how long assemble the right people to take it forward, for managing their music and photo collections it takes for new technologies and working prac- then we’ll give it a go. We tend to work in than they do for managing the information they tices to be adopted. But, frankly, I shouldn’t be small project-oriented teams, whether within use in their professional lives. It’s not hard to surprised by this anymore, so I guess it’s really the central Digital Science team or at one of understand why — science is a much smaller an indication of my own impatience. To look our portfolio companies. These teams are quite market than, say, games or office productivity on the bright side, this means that there are autonomous, but there’s also central support in — but it’s still a problem and Digital Science still huge opportunities to make science more areas like management, business development, exists to address it. productive, as well as more fulfilling for those marketing, and technology. We also encourage who practice it. The evolution of technology and enable collaborations between projects How did you personally get involved with as applied to science is still in the Cambrian where we see mutual benefits. Digital Science? Era, and as a technology geek who used to Why is a different approach to innovation TH: I was working at Nature Publish- be a scientist, I can’t think of anything more needed in the scientific community? ing Group helping to run the online business important or fulfilling to work on.

From the Reference Desk by Tom Gilson (Associate Editor, Against the Grain, and Head of Reference Emeritus, College of Charleston, Charleston, SC 29401)

ost reference librarians will recognize will also provide birth and death dates and list make sense of what is being observed about the pedigree of this recent addi- exhibitions, museum and collection holdings, the nature of human-cyberspace interaction. Mtion to Oxford University Press’ auction records, and bibliographies. In a small Editor Zheng Yan and the more than 200 catalog. The Benezit Dictionary of British number of cases, the entry is illustrated with scholars that contribute to this effort are in- Graphic Artists and Illustrators (2012, 978- artist signatures and stamps of sale. formed by disciplines ranging from sociology 0199923052, $295) is a subset drawn from The Benezit Dictionary of British Graphic to technology and from business and health the first English edition (2006) of the Benezit Artists and Illustrators is a smartly re-pack- to communications and law. The set does Dictionary of Artists, a classic title in the refer- aged subset of a classic attuned to the needs not employ an alphabetical arrangement but ence literature first published in French in three and interests of specialists. Depending on rather is organized into ten sections in a kind of volumes between 1911 and 1923. demand, libraries already owning the 2006 hierarchical structure. The first section builds Admittedly, this two-volume subset does English edition of the Benezit Dictionary of some foundations by discussing the work of more than provide a specialist’s focus on British Artists may or may not feel the need for this pioneer scholar Sherry Turkle, the field of graphic artists and illustrators. It updates the in their reference collection. However, given social network studies, and the influence of origin by including 90 revised entries as well as the specific concentration on British artists, it efforts like the Pew Research Center Internet 60 new articles above and beyond those found in may be a viable addition to some circulating and American Life Project, NetLab, and the the full Benezit Dictionary of Artists. Overall, collections. Serious students and scholars may Children’s Digital Media Center. The focus there are some 3,000 entries covering “print- also wish a copy for their own shelves. The then switches to three “key components” of makers, poster artists, illustrators, cartoonists, two-volume set is nicely bound, handy, and full cyber behavior including cyber technologies calligraphers, and illuminators either native to or of relevant and authoritative information. like chatrooms, wikis, and smartphones; active in the from the Middle (The parent publication, The Benezit Dic- cyber populations ranging from digital na- Ages to the present.” Following the established tionary of Artists is available electronically tives and the net generation to seniors; and template of the Benezit Dictionary, the entries in via Oxford Art Online, which also allows cyber interactions like multi-tasking; online this set provide biographical sketches informed simultaneous searching of Grove Art Online, collaboration, and cyber cafes and the youth by the available information, so the entries vary the Encyclopedia of Aesthetics, The Oxford development. The next five sections discuss in length and structure. All have the name, gen- Companion to Western Art, and The Concise cyber behavior as manifest in specific fields der, time the artist was active, and the medium(s) Oxford Dictionary of Art Terms. According like business, medicine, law, government, and they worked in, followed by a narrative — some to the Website, Oxford Art Online is updated education. This coverage results in articles barely a sentence long while others a number three times a year.) on topics as diverse as e-auctions, Internet ad- of paragraphs in diction, cyber bullying, Internet fraud, Twitter length. The more and political elections, cyber warfare, and substantial entries The Encyclopedia of Cyber Behavior e-learning behaviors in middle school. While (2012, 978-1466603158, $1495) is a three- many of these chapters seem informed by cyber volume set recently published by IGI Global. behavior in the U.S., the final section looks at Edited by Zheng Yan of the University of cyber behavior in Europe and Latin America Albany. This reference attempts to provide a as well as China, India, Japan, Canada, and defining foundation as well as scholarly clarity Russia. Surprisingly, there was no chapter on to this “emerged” field of study that concen- cyber behavior in the Middle East. trates on the place where human behavior and Each chapter is structured in a similar fash- cyberspace meet. ion starting with an abstract, an introduction The world of cyber behavior is a complex defining the topic, an intellectual history along place that draws on multiple disciplines to continued on page 62

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