title: Seeking the wisdom of crowds through challenge-based competitions in biomedical research.
abstract: “Challenge-based competitions” refers to a framework for addressing fundamental research questions in which the community is presented with a challenge, the data to address the challenge, and independent, unbiased assessment to rank submitted solutions. Although the typical result of such efforts is a robust performance evaluation of diverse methodologies, challenge-based competitions reach far beyond algorithm assessment. Here, we discuss the impact of challenge-based competitions in the areas of organizing and building communities and driving innovation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
authors.forename: J C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Costello
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Stolovitzky
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D035843:Biomedical Research / Q000458:organization & administration*; D003159:Community-Institutional Relations; D003163:Competitive Behavior; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D006801:Humans; D009936:Organizational Innovation