ChemSpider Roles
For many tasks that you might want to perform on ChemSpider (searches etc), there is no need to have a ChemSpider User account. However, for particular tasks on the site like saving search results, you will need an account – and for certain other tasks, like curating identifiers, adding literature links, uploading structures or spectra, or using our Web APIs, your ChemSpider account will need to have a particular role.
To request a role, when you are logged in click My ChemSpider at the top of any ChemSpider page. Then choose your profile from the next page.
Curator
This role gives you the following privileges:
Depositor
A depositor can submit new structures (i.e. create new records). See
Depositors Section
for more details.
The request comments text box allows you to leave a message for the ChemSpider administrators. Once you have filled in your details and selected your roles, click on Update to save your settings. You will now see that the list of roles has changed to indicate which roles you have requested.
Once your request has been reviewed, you will be notified by email and your profile will be updated to show which roles you have been approved.
Introduction
As a depositor you can deposit structures and create a new record in the database. Any data deposited into ChemSpider must be deposited into a “Data Source” – this is a way of grouping data according to who provided the information. Any person or institution can be set up as a Data Source, but once created for a user account it will always be associated with this Data Source and the user account cannot then be associated with another Data Source. If you work within a team or large organisation it is possible to set up a Data Source for the group and for each member of the group to deposit data into that Data Source from their individual accounts (they must request that they are set up as secondary users of the Data Source).
For example, Prof. Smith might set up his account and create a Data Source called “The Smith group, University of Chemtown”. His research group could then request that their accounts be set up as secondary users of “The Smith group, University of Chemtown” Data Source, so that all of their depositions are also added to this Datasource.
To see what information you can include in a Datasource description browse our Datasources page and click on any Datasource name to view an example. Every record that you deposit will have a link to your Datasource page – allowing you to improve your visibility in the chemistry community.
To set up your Datasource, choose the “Datasource details” option from your “Depositions” page. Click the “Edit” button at the bottom of the page. The “Description” section should be brief, as it will appear when users hover their mouse over your data source name. Please note that the ChemSpider team will need to review and approve your datasource before other users can see it.
If you would like advice on how best to configure your Data Source (recommended) then email chemspider-at-rsc.org and a member of the team will be able to discuss your needs and set up the Data Source to meet your requirements.