Governance

The InChI is governed by IUPAC and the InChI Trust, via the Scientific Advisory Group and the Technical Implementation Steering Group. The InChI Scientific Steering Group operates under the auspices of IUPAC’s Committee on Publications and Cheminformatics Data Standards (CPCDS). Its main responsibilities are to:

  • Formulate scientific priorities in consultation with CPCDS and the InChI Trust
  • Review proposals for scientific project groups
  • Recommend scientific specifications for approval through CPCDS

The Scientific Steering Group has general oversight of InChI Project Groups, supporting them in the development and specification of new features, and ensuring iterative feedback and testing can be provided to implementation teams following approval.

The Technical Steering Group will operate under the auspices of the InChI Trust Board. Its main responsibilities are to:

  • Establish implementation & maintenance priorities for the InChI standard
  • Provide oversight of software architecture and technical infrastructure
  • Approve implementation plans and milestones

The Technical Steering Group will have general oversight of Implementation Teams, supporting them in delivery of their goals against agreed plans and ensuring provision of a collaborative development infrastructure and testing framework.

Shared responsibilities include:

  • Consultation with wider communities on priorities for new features
  • Requirements for an implementable scientific specification including user acceptance tests
  • Consistency and backward compatibility of InChI inputs and outputs
  • Specification of test coverage and validation protocols
  • Scientific and technical documentation
  • Sign-off on releases according to an agreed checklist developed by the two steering groups

How to get involved

Sign up for InChI updates

Extending the InChI

Get involved

InChI Trust and IUPAC agreement

At the third meeting of the InChI Trust Board of Directors, in San Francisco, USA, on 21 March 2010, an agreement (see text below) between IUPAC and the InChI Trust was signed by Jason Wilde (publishing director, Nature Publishing Group, and chairman of the InChI Trust Board) and Terry Renner (IUPAC executive director). This sets out the conditions under which the two organizations intend to further develop and maintain the International Chemical Identifier (InChI). The schematics below attempts to explains how the different bodies and interested parties will work together, and how input from the community is fed into the project for future consideration and development. The agreement was updated in 2016.

The InChI Trust and IUPAC: Heads of Agreement

  • The InChI Trust, established in May 2009, provides a means of continuing the development and maintenance of the InChI standard with funds from annual membership dues
  • The IUPAC Division VIII InChI Subcommittee (hereinafter called the “IUPAC InChI Subcommittee”) represents IUPAC’s authority for recognition of the InChI standard.
  • The InChI Trust Board of Directors includes a IUPAC representative with full voting rights.
  • Requests for changes, whether corrections or extensions, to the InChI algorithm and/or the related InChIKey hash algorithm can arise from InChI Trust members or other InChI users, or from within IUPAC.
  • The IUPAC InChI Subcommittee and the InChI Trust Project Director will consider any requests for change, define corresponding requirements and communicate these requirements to the InChI Trust with suggestions for prioritisation if necessary.
  • The InChI Trust will make arrangements for work needed to implement accepted changes, discussing any prioritisation issues with the IUPAC InChI Subcommittee. In case of disagreement over priorities, the Trust, as provider of funds for the work, will have the final say. However, it is open to IUPAC to provide alternative sources of funding for any work connected with InChI development. Conversely, the Trust may contribute funding towards projects of the IUPAC InChI Subcommittee.
  • Any new (corrected/extended) version of InChI/InChIKey or related standard software will require IUPAC approval [i.e. endorsement by IUPAC Division VIII and IUPAC’s Committee on Publications and Cheminformatics Data Standards (CPCDS)] before release. This will normally involve consultation of the 100+ members of the SourceForge inchi-discuss list; this is the equivalent of IUPAC’s ‘public review’. Review by IUPACs Interdivisional Committee on Terminology, Nomenclature and Symbols is not regarded as appropriate for software products of this type. New versions of InChI/InChIKey and related standard software will be released on the IUPAC and InChI Trust websites
  • All releases of InChI algorithm will be on behalf of IUPAC and the InChI Trust (as joint licenser) and will continue to be made available under an open-source license as mutually agreed between IUPAC and the InChI Trust.