Against the Grain Volume 24 | Issue 4 Article 19 September 2012 I Hear the Train A Comin'-An Interview with Timo Hannay, Managing Director of Digital Science Greg Tananbaum ScholarNext Consulting, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/atg Part of the Library and Information Science Commons 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) <[email protected]> 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/): Nature 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 Macmillan Publishers. 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 Altmetric 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 Scopus. 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 <http://www.against-the-grain.com> 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.