7 June 2011
Jason Awerdick
+1 212-633-3103
j.awerdick@elsevier.com
Elsevier Announces Winners of the Executable Paper Grand Challenge
Contest created to improve the way scientific information is communicated and used
Amsterdam, 7 June 2011 – Elsevier, a leading publisher of scientific, technical and medical
information products and services, has announced the winners of the Executable Paper Grand
Challenge, a program Elsevier created to address the difficulties associated with reproducing
computer science research results. The awards presentation ceremony took place at the 2011
International Conference on Computational Science (ICCS) on June 2 in Singapore.
The winners, selected from a pool of 70 submissions by a distinguished nine-member jury, are as
follows:
First Prize
Top honors went to The Collage Authoring Environment, whose team members include:
Piotr Nowakowski, Eryk Ciepiela, Daniel Harężlak, Joanna Kocot, Marek Kasztelnik, Tomasz
Bartyński, Jan Meizner, and Grzegorz Dyk, ACC CYFRONET AGH, Kraków, Poland, and Maciej
Malawski of the Institute of Computer Science AGH, Kraków, Poland, and the Center for Research
Computing, University of Notre Dame, USA. The Collage Authoring Environment is a scalable
architecture designed to support authors, reviewers, and end users as well as publishers. The system
allows researchers to create papers by combining narrative discussion with snippets of executable
code.
“The Collage system addressed, in the most comprehensive way, the concept of an executable
paper,” said Dr. Peter Sloot of the University of Amsterdam, External Chair of the Grand Challenge
and ICCS Conference Chair. “It presents this vision in a robust architecture, from the standpoint of
multiple workflows and end-user perspectives, and allows the easy integration of other components.”
Second Prize
Pieter Van Gorp of Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands, and Steffen Mazanek,
Munich, Germany, won second prize for SHARE: A Web Portal for Creating and Sharing Executable
Research Papers. SHARE (Sharing Hosted Autonomous Research Environments) is a Web portal to a
catalog of virtual machines. By deploying a copy of the required operating system in SHARE as well
as relevant software and data, authors can make a conventional paper fully reproducible and
interactive.
Third Prize
Matan Gavish and David Donoho, Stanford University, received third prize for A Universal Identifier for
Computational Results. The Universal Identifier is a specific implementation of one aspect the
executable paper–an ID resolution system for results. The proposed solution is simple and elegant,
and confers ease of use by adding one or two lines of code.
About the Executable Paper Grand Challenge
Elsevier formed the Executable Paper Grand Challenge to address the problem that computer science
research results can be difficult to reproduce. Vital blocks of information needed to replicate such
results—for example, software, code, large data sets—are typically unavailable within the context of a
scholarly publication. The Executable Paper Grand Challenge creates an opportunity for scientists to
design solutions that capture this information and provide a platform whereby this data can be verified
and manipulated.
“The Executable Paper Grand Challenge was created with a view to the future of scholarly
communication, which increasingly integrates the experiment and its presentation,” Dr. Sloot noted.
“The vision is a future where research is executable on all levels, including data, results, and
methodology.”
Rebecca Capone, Publisher, Theoretical Computer Science, Elsevier, and co-organizer of the Grand
Challenge, added: “As publishers, it is our responsibility to not only meet the needs of contemporary
researchers but to also anticipate the needs of future scientists. Executable data both enriches the
content and documents the essential building blocks of the experiment for the next generation.”
Anita de Waard, Director, Disruptive Technologies, Elsevier, sees the continued collaboration between
the very different sets of tools and solutions presented during the Executable Paper sessions as a very
dynamic way forward. “Collectively we hope to develop new infrastructures and knowledge
environments that will allow for a richer and deeper representation of our science,” she said.
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About ICCS 2011
Since 2001, ICCS has brought together researchers and scientists from various disciplines, along with
software developers and vendors, to discuss problems and solutions, identify new issues, and shape
future directions for research, as well as help industrial users apply various advanced computational
techniques. These include researchers from mathematics and computer science and basic computing
disciplines, as well as researchers from various application areas who are pioneering advanced
application of computational methods to sciences such as physics, chemistry, life sciences, and
engineering, and arts and humanitarian fields.
About Elsevier
Elsevier is a world-leading provider of scientific, technical and medical information products and
services. The company works in partnership with the global science and health communities to publish
more than 2,000 journals, including The Lancet and Cell, and close to 20,000 book titles, including
major reference works from Mosby and Saunders. Elsevier’s online solutions include SciVerse
ScienceDirect, SciVerse Scopus, Reaxys, MD Consult and Nursing Consult, which enhance the
productivity of science and health professionals, and the SciVal suite and MEDai’s Pinpoint Review,
which help research and health care institutions deliver better outcomes more cost-effectively.
A global business headquartered in Amsterdam, Elsevier employs 7,000 people worldwide. The
company is part of Reed Elsevier Group PLC, a world-leading publisher and information provider,
which is jointly owned by Reed Elsevier PLC and Reed Elsevier NV. The ticker symbols are REN
(Euronext Amsterdam), REL (London Stock Exchange), RUK and ENL (New York Stock Exchange).
Media Contact
Jason Awerdick
j.awerdick@elsevier.com
+1 212-633-3103
Elsevier