Towards a gold standard and regarding quality in public domain chemistry databases and approaches to improving the situation

In recent years there has been a dramatic increase in the number of freely accessible online databases serving the chemistry community. These databases are diverse in nature and encompass chemical vendor catalogs, government-funded research results, definitively focused and highly curated collections and large-scale information aggregators. As a result the internet theoretically now represents a rich array of chemistry data that can be utilized for the purpose of data-mining, for utilizing in computer models, and for integrating into other systems to expand data accessibility and aid drug discovery. With this dramatic improvement in accessibility comes a responsibility to ensure that the data are as high a quality as possible. This will ensure that time is not wasted in erroneous searches, that models are underpinned by accurate data and that the improved discoverability of online resources is not marred by the delivery of incorrect data. This paper represents an overview of some of the experiences of the authors in utilizing online chemical compound databases, critiques some of the approaches being taken to assemble data and suggests alternative approaches to collaborate to deliver definitive reference data sources for the community to utilize.