ZAGENO's Scientific Score
What is the Scientific Score?
ZAGENO’s Scientific Score is a comprehensive product rating system, specifically developed for evaluating research products. It incorporates several aspects of product data, from multiple sources, to equip scientists with a sophisticated and unbiased product rating for making accurate purchasing decisions.
Scientists, suppliers, and ZAGENO all contribute to the score, providing product specifications & resources, product citations in the form of published methods or validations, and insights from user behavior analytics.
The Scientific Score (patent pending) is calculated relative to products within the same category, therefore ensuring an application-specific product rating. Additionally, each data input is weighted based on its importance to the scientist to give a truly meaningful product rating.
With the introduction of a renewed and innovative concept of the score, we are covering more information than ever before. Our Scientific Score now incorporates 75 million product-specific data points, across 5.5 million product variants and more than 3,000 brands, in addition to extensive user behavior analytics from the ZAGENO marketplace.
- Why the Scientific Score provides a thorough product evaluation
- Help improve the Scientific Score and reap the benefits!
ZAGENO's Scientific Score captures everything that matters to scientists
Standard product rating systems are useful to assess products quickly, but are often biased and unreliable, due to unknown reviews or the use of a single metric (e.g. no. of publications.) On the other hand, five-star ratings provide little detail on the experimental context or application.
Therefore we developed a scientific method to objectively and comprehensively evaluate products on ZAGENO. We combine all of the necessary and relevant product information into one single 0 - 10 rating, with the aim of supporting our customers in deciding which product to buy and use for their specific application - saving hours of extensive product research. As a result:
Our Scientific Score is built on several distinct metrics
- Product specifications provided by the manufacturer and supplier (as well as product-specific resources, i.e. handbooks and safety data sheets);
- Scientists’ validation results and utilization in published methods (such as those found in a product’s resources section); and
- Commercial success, (including brand performance) and user behavior (e.g. product popularity) on the Zageno marketplace.
Additionally, due to its design as a dynamic rating system, we are committed to improving the accuracy of the score by continuing to add relevant inputs, such as Verified Purchase Reviews. The end result is a comprehensive and unique overview of every product, combining both public and private data inputs.
Our Score accounts for research products’ application-specific nature
We apply sophisticated machine-learning algorithms to accurately match, group and categorize millions of products. The Scientific Score accounts for these categorizations, as each product’s score is calculated relative to those in the same category. The result - a rating system that scientists can trust: one that is specific to both product application and product type.
The Scientific Score is a neutral and straightforward product guide
To ensure no single factor dominates, we add cut-off points and give more weight to recent contributions. The sheer number of factors we take into account virtually eliminates any opportunity for manipulation. Therefore, our score is an objective measure of the quality and quantity of available product information, which supports our customers’ purchasing decisions.
The Scientific Score is a prominent feature of ZAGENO's products
Whether you are searching our catalog or reviewing a single product, our Scientific Score is always available to give you a fast and accurate product analysis. Just quickly glance to the top right of any product to find our distinctive Scientific Score (highlighted here with a green box.)
The Scientific Score is hugely reliant on your contribution and feedback, whether you are a researcher, manufacturer or supplier. We, therefore, invite you to join the ZAGENO community and share your specific product experience or information. Each input contributes to the Scientific Score and subsequently benefits the wider community - as well as you:
As a scientist:
- Send us links to your publications which utilize specific products at scientificscore(at)zageno.com. Make sure to include your: Name, Publication Title, Publication Link (DOI or Journal Link), and the Catalog Numbers of the products used.
We will add these links to our ‘Resources’ section for cited products. We want to increase the visibility of your work!
- Share your antibody validation data via the ZAGENO Antibody Validation Initiative (ZAVI).
We will give your data exposure as part of the antibody’s ‘Resources’ section. Contact us at scientificscore(at)zageno.com for further information.
As a supplier:
- Contact our supplier partnership team at suppliers(at)zageno.com and publish relevant product information on the ZAGENO marketplace that makes your portfolio stand out and easily findable by our scientist user base.
- Be a part of our ZAGENO Antibody Validation Initiative (ZAVI) to capture and publish valuable validation data for your antibody portfolio. Contact us at scientificscore(at)zageno.com for further information.
Help us to improve the Scientific Score - our mission at ZAGENO is to make all relevant product information findable and actionable, as we truly believe in transparency and the value of open data!
If you have any feedback on how we can further improve the Scientific Score, contact us at scientificscore(at)zageno.com.
1. What is the underlying algorithm?
The main underlying concept is based on comparing similar products and ranking them relative to each other along various dimensions (sub-scores). The total score is then derived by weighting the different sub-scores, resulting in a percentile-based ranking ranging from 0.1 to 10.0. The algorithm itself depends on the harmonized database assembled by ZAGENO, which is consistently checked for duplicates, integrated with various data sources, and regularly normalized to accommodate for the needs of the biotech industry.
2. Which metrics will impact the Scientific Score?
The factors contributing to the final score of a product include, among others: product specifications provided by the manufacturer and supplier (as well as product-specific resources, i.e. handbooks and SDS documents), scientists’ validation results, utilization in published methods (such as those found in a product’s resources section), the popularity of the product amongst scientists, the performance of the product’s brand (based on performance across the whole brand range), and its commercial success on ZAGENO. We believe that only the combination of various information types can provide an accurate rating which accounts for the complexity of scientific products.
3. How often will the Scientific Score be updated?
Once a month, using data from the previous six months - ensuring the Scientific Score is kept relevant and up to date with the fast-moving sector of Life Science research.
4. Can suppliers and manufacturers influence the scoring of its products?
There is no way for manufacturers or suppliers to manipulate or “buy” points counting towards the score. The only way for them to improve their product’s score is to provide further information considered valuable to our scientific users (e.g., detailed specifications, citations, etc.)
5. How will publications be included in the Score?
Publications found in the ‘Resources’ section of a product page currently influence the Scientific Score. These are often provided by the manufacturer or supplier as examples of where the product has been used in relevant studies. In addition, scientists can contribute to the ‘Resources’ section, and hence the score, by providing links to their publications which cite products on ZAGENO, or by providing relevant antibody validations. In the future, we aim to include more publications listed on major indexing sites, such as PubMed and Google Scholar.
6. Should I not consider a product with a low Score?
No. The score is a guide, comparing products to their peers. The score is reflecting the quality and quantity of all relevant and available information that is available on and around ZAGENO. We are continuously collecting more and more information, provided by users, suppliers, the scientific community, and our marketplace analytics.
7. Why do some products have no Score?
Products which were recently added to the ZAGENO catalog will not have been included in the last monthly calculation update, and so will have no Score. This will be corrected in the update the following month.
8. Why do many products have the same score in a category - is this a “bug”?
No. Products with the same score likely have similar information available - this is particularly true for products of the same brand. As more product information is added, the Scientific Score of these products will start to differ.