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  • Perspective
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Bridging the information gap in organic chemical reactions

Nature Chemistry volume 16, pages 491–498 (2024)Cite this article

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Abstract

The varying quality of scientific reports is a well-recognized problem and often results from a lack of standardization and transparency in scientific publications. This situation ultimately leads to prominent complications such as reproducibility issues and the slow uptake of newly developed synthetic methods for pharmaceutical and agrochemical applications. In recent years, various impactful approaches have been advocated to bridge information gaps and to improve the quality of experimental protocols in synthetic organic publications. Here we provide a critical overview of these strategies and present the reader with a versatile set of tools to augment their standard procedures. We formulate eight principles to improve data management in scientific publications relating to data standardization, reproducibility and evaluation, and encourage scientists to go beyond current publication standards. We are aware that this is a substantial effort, but we are convinced that the resulting improved data situation will greatly benefit the progress of chemistry.

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Fig. 1: Information management in scientific publications.
Fig. 2: Visualization of external evaluation parameters for the assessment of chemical processes.
Fig. 3: Screening approaches to evaluate the sensitivity and robustness of a reaction.

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Acknowledgements

We thank T. Dalton (Bayer AG), F. Katzenburg (University of Münster) and L. Quach (Evonik) for helpful assistance and discussions. This work received generous financial support from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (Leibniz Award, SFB 1459).

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  1. These authors contributed equally: Malte L. Schrader, Felix R. Schäfer, Felix Schäfers.

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  1. Organisch-Chemisches Institut, Universität Münster, Münster, Germany

    Malte L. Schrader, Felix R. Schäfer, Felix Schäfers & Frank Glorius

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All authors were part of the conceptualization, investigation and writing of this Perspective, and they all approved the final version of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Frank Glorius.

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Schrader, M.L., Schäfer, F.R., Schäfers, F. et al. Bridging the information gap in organic chemical reactions. Nat. Chem. 16, 491–498 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41557-024-01470-8

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