“Why do life science companies need to discover new scientific content?”
Innovation is at the heart of every successful company out there, no matter the size. It is about generating new ideas that solve problems or build on existing solutions, like improving patient treatments and meeting unmet medical needs.
In my 30-year career, I have been fortunate to work alongside many brilliant scientists, and one thing they tend to have in common is that they’re very well read. They are on top of new scientific discoveries and can connect the dots from diverse sources to come up with new insights.
This is why timely access to scientific content is so crucial in generating new ideas and insights. You can use these publications to confirm or validate your current thinking, but more importantly, to challenge your hypothesis and assumptions. This will minimize “group think.” If new publications go against your ideas, how can you use new information to modify or switch strategies?
Drug development is a lengthy process, and it’s important to be on top of scientific literature to ensure that you are always moving in the right direction.
Searching for (and Gaining Access to) Scientific Content
Where are companies finding scientific content? Everyone in the space is familiar with journal publications and using databases like PubMed and SciFinder. I call the use of these resources “intentional searching,” where you visit these sites and use keywords or author names to look for the articles or publications you want to read.
Outside of this traditional way of looking for scientific content, there is also what I call “unintentional searching.” We have all had the experience of finding articles that intrigue us when we are browsing mainstream media sources, sites like the Wall Street Journal, for example.
The same is true of corporate press releases. When companies update their research programs, they sometimes suggest checking their various publications with content related to what they are announcing. On social media and networking sites like X, LinkedIn, or even Reddit you will come across posts, especially from authors, who promote their new articles as soon as they are published. In terms of where scientific content is being found, it can be found everywhere now.
A trickier question is, “How do I find full-text articles?” It is a wonderful feeling to search for an article online and find it listed as “free” or “open access.” The caveat is that open access does not automatically mean that you are free to reuse or share that content.
When articles are behind paywalls, there are a couple of choices to access the full text:
- You can use credit cards to pay for access to articles. This is a simple transactional workflow.
- You can use a document delivery vendor as part of a workflow that involves submitting a request for content to the vendor, having them source it, and coming back to us with the article(s) we asked for.
In the second scenario, you may be able to save the content for your later personal use or share it with colleagues in the same department or on the same project team.
Content Challenges to Consider
While there are multiple options that can help scientists gain access to full-text articles, there are several challenges that are big enough to keep me up at night. One of the biggest is network security.
When scientists see the option to click and download content online, how do they ensure that they are downloading from a trusted source and not inadvertently inviting some sort of malware onto their company’s network?
The second big challenge centers on budgeting for and managing acquired content. If everyone on a team is permitted to purchase and manage scientific content on their own, how can a company be sure that employees are not paying for the same article multiple times? Even when a shared folder exists to store content on, employees may not always add their articles to it or remember to check it when purchasing an article they need.
The third challenge is copyright compliance. How can a company ensure that its employees are downloading and sharing articles in a way that is copyright compliant and not in a way that could expose the company to potential copyright violation lawsuits down the road. Companies need to do everything they can to maintain copyright compliance around scientific content.
The Bottom Line
For small companies, a solution for acquiring and sharing scientific content should be as cost-effective and easy to use as possible, in large part because it allows their scientists to spend more of their time on value-added activities, like reading papers, tweaking and optimizing experimental procedures and spending more time in the lab, instead of chasing down articles they need.
CCC recently sat down with Doreen P. Alberts, a consultant with over 30 years of drug development experience, for a discussion on how smaller life science companies can improve the way their employees search for and utilize the scientific content that helps power their innovation. You can watch the full conversation here. Learn about CCC’s solutions for small life sciences companies here.