title: Upon the Shoulders of Giants: Open-Source Hardware and Software in Analytical Chemistry.
abstract: Isaac Newton famously observed that "if I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." We propose that this sentiment is a powerful motivation for the "open-source" movement in scientific research, in which creators provide everything needed to replicate a given project online, as well as providing explicit permission for users to use, improve, and share it with others. Here, we write to introduce analytical chemists who are new to the open-source movement to best practices and concepts in this area and to survey the state of open-source research in analytical chemistry. We conclude by considering two examples of open-source projects from our own research group, with the hope that a description of the process, motivations, and results will provide a convincing argument about the benefits that this movement brings to both creators and users.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Toronto , 80 Saint George Street, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3H6, Canada.
authors.forename: Michael D M
authors.initials: MDM
authors.lastname: Dryden
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Toronto , 80 Saint George Street, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3H6, Canada.|Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research , 160 College Street, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3E1, Canada.
authors.forename: Ryan
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Fobel
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Toronto , 80 Saint George Street, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3H6, Canada.|Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research , 160 College Street, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3E1, Canada.
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Fobel
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Toronto , 80 Saint George Street, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3H6, Canada.|Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research , 160 College Street, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3E1, Canada.|Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering, University of Toronto , 164 College Street, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3G9, Canada.
authors.forename: Aaron R
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-5230-7475
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Wheeler