The IP & Science business of Thomson Reuters, the world’s leading source of intelligent information for businesses and professionals, announced today at the American Library Association (ALA) MidWinter Meeting the launch of its Ideation Challenge, a contest for the scientific and scholarly research community designed to expand the discovery experience offered by Thomson Reuters Web of KnowledgeSM.
The Web of Knowledge is an online, multifaceted research platform that provides a single point of access to premier multidisciplinary content alongside emerging trends, subject-specific content and research data. Resources available on the platform include objective content, citation analysis functionality, and bibliographic management tools, as well as access to full text documents in the sciences, social sciences and the art and humanities. The Ideation Challenge will award $10,000 to the selected individuals who develop innovative concept papers describing new ways users can interact with the content and tools in Web of Knowledge.
The Ideation Challenge is the first in a series of innovation challenges to be hosted by the Scientific & Scholarly Research group of Thomson Reuters. It is designed to raise awareness for relevant news and commentary, recognize excellence in research and encourage professional development. The first place winner will receive $6,000 USD. Second and third place winners will receive $3,000 USD and $1,000 USD, respectively. There are 20 million users of the Web of Knowledge, ranging from students, information professionals, researchers and teaching faculty.
“As technology evolves, so too must the content and tools that support research excellence,” said Gordon Macomber, managing director of the Scientific & Scholarly Research group at Thomson Reuters. “The Ideation Challenge taps into the expertise of our user community and creates an open dialogue that puts their suggestions first and demonstrates our commitment to ensuring their voices are heard.”
Thomson Reuters is partnering with crowdsourcing leader InnoCentive for the Ideation Challenge. “We were very excited when Thomson Reuters approached us about partnering with them on this important Ideation Challenge,” said Dwayne Spradlin, CEO of InnoCentive. “How users search for and interact with content is continuously evolving, and we applaud Thomson Reuters for staying on the cutting-edge of innovation by harnessing crowdsourcing to solicit ideas from the world’s smartest problem solvers.”
The Ideation Challenge runs from January 24 to the weekend of February 24 and will be judged by a panel of technical and subject matter experts from within Thomson Reuters. After winners are announced, Thomson Reuters will launch the Build Challenge, where they will make Thomson Reuters Web of Knowledge APIs available to participants who can develop programs that advance the practice of online scientific and scholarly research. This second, programmatic challenge will begin in April, with a whitepaper and code delivery expected.
Visit the Thomson Reuters booth, # 1911, at the ALA MidWinter Meeting in Seattle to learn more about the Ideation Challenge. Attendees can also learn about recent additions to the Web of Knowledge at the session: “Informing our Evolution: A discussion with our Product Management Team,” from 8:30-10 a.m. pacific standard time, Sunday, January 27.
Visit www.wokinfo.com/challenge to learn more about the Ideation Challenge. For terms and conditions of the Ideation Challenge, visit https://www.innocentive.com/ar/contract/printUnsigned/107.
