title: New global communication process in thermodynamics: impact on quality of published experimental data.
abstract: Thermodynamic data are a key resource in the search for new relationships between properties of chemical systems that constitutes the basis of the scientific discovery process. In addition, thermodynamic information is critical for development and improvement of all chemical process technologies. Historically, peer-reviewed journals are the major source of this information obtained by experimental measurement or prediction. Technological advances in measurement science have propelled enormous growth in the scale of published thermodynamic data (almost doubling every 10 years). This expansion has created new challenges in data validation at all stages of the data delivery process. Despite the peer-review process, problems in data validation have led, in many instances, to publication of data that are grossly erroneous and, at times, inconsistent with the fundamental laws of nature. This article describes a new global data communication process in thermodynamics and its impact in addressing these challenges as well as in streamlining the delivery of the thermodynamic data from "data producers" to "data users". We believe that the prolific growth of scientific data in numerous and diverse fields outside thermodynamics, together with the demonstrated effectiveness and versatility of the process described in this article, will foster development of such processes in other scientific fields.
authors.affiliation: Physical and Chemical Properties Division, 838, National Institute of Standards and Technology, 325 Broadway, Boulder, Colorado 80305-3328, USA. frenkel@boulder.nist.gov
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Frenkel
authors.forename: R D
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Chirico
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Diky
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Muzny
authors.forename: Q
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Dong
authors.forename: K N
authors.initials: KN
authors.lastname: Marsh
authors.forename: J H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Dymond
authors.forename: W A
authors.initials: WA
authors.lastname: Wakeham
authors.forename: S E
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Stein
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Königsberger
authors.forename: A R H
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Goodwin
authors.forename: J W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Magee
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Thijssen
authors.forename: W M
authors.initials: WM
authors.lastname: Haynes
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Watanasiri
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Satyro
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Schmidt
authors.forename: A I
authors.initials: AI
authors.lastname: Johns
authors.forename: G R
authors.initials: GR
authors.lastname: Hardin
mesh_terms: D002621:Chemistry / Q000379:methods*; D016206:Databases, Bibliographic; D015195:Drug Design; D005663:Furans / Q000737:chemistry; D048088:Informatics; D007700:Kinetics; D008956:Models, Chemical; D017712:Peer Review, Research; D010506:Periodicals as Topic; D011108:Polymers / Q000737:chemistry; D012984:Software; D013816:Thermodynamics
chemical_list: D005663:Furans; D011108:Polymers; C018674:tetrahydrofuran