LICSS hits the press, and an update on the OB/BO papers

I've written here before about how Kevin Lawson (of Syngenta) has developed a way to incorporate chemistry into Excel using only freely-available software, namely the CDK and JChemPaint (and also now OPSIN it seems). This system is called LICSS, and the corresponding paper has just appeared in Journal of Cheminformatics where it has been highlighted as an Editor's Pick.

So go check it out. I'm particularly interested in the use of this software in an academic teaching setting. It would seem to be ideal for introducting students to cheminformatics.

While on the subject of papers in J. Cheminf., I've been keeping an eye on accesses and citations of the Open Babel and Blue Obelisk papers since publication in October of last year (see also my earlier post on the topic).

Both have remained in the top 10 most accessed papers in the last 30 days (now at positions 4 and 6 for OB and BO respectively). In terms of accesses over the last year, the OB paper is now at position 5 (BO at 23) behind Peter Ertl and Ansgar Schuffenhauer, Mikhail Elyashberg et al (including Tony Williams), Peter Ertl again, and Matthias Samwald et al (including Egon Willighagen) at #1. In terms of all-time accesses, there's still some way to go for OB (now at 24) and BO (now at 46).

Keeping an eye on accesses is fun, but do they translate into the traditional academic coin of citations? Well, the Open Babel paper has already been cited four times, although the Blue Obelisk paper still has only the initial citation from the corresponding editorial (early days yet though).