Elsevier and Hypothesis to integrate open annotation

Elsevier and Hypothesis have announced a collaboration to align annotation capabilities in Elsevier’s Research Products with the emerging ecosystem of interoperable clients and services for annotation based on open standards and technologies.

Hypothesis is a non-profit company dedicated to the development of open annotation. Through its open-source technology, academics and scientists are able to make notes on documents they are reading, and share those notes with others.

By working together, Elsevier and Hypothesis say they are demonstrating two important shifts in scholarly communications: first, the growing role that annotation plays within the life cycle of research and publication; and second, that data standards and open frameworks are increasingly essential to scientific collaboration and progress.

'We know how essential annotation is to the daily workflow of researchers. Mendeley users have made hundreds of millions of annotations and Hypothesis users have been annotating SSRN and ScienceDirect content for years. Annotation is quickly becoming a required part of the larger researcher ecosystem, said Olivier Dumon, managing director of research products at Elsevier.

'Hypothesis’ leadership and commitment to this space, best in class functionality, and open source technology made them the obvious choice to work with as we invest in our products to better support the research community.'

Heather Staines, director of partnerships at Hypothesis, added: 'While the consensus achieved by the W3C Web Annotation standards recommendation last year was an essential first step, widespread adoption of interoperable annotation requires that major publishers incorporate it into their products and services.

'We’re thrilled that Elsevier is taking a leadership role in recognising the potential benefits for researchers, and moving to integrate Hypothesis’ standards-based and open source annotation solution. We’re also delighted that they recognise the benefit of working with a nonprofit committed to an independent community platform.'