The integration of annotation data sets will be centered around the PubAnnotation platform, an open source system developed by DBCLS for integration of literature annotation, and for public sharing. It has an open architecture through which other tools and systems can be interconnected (using standard REST API and JSON format). The official service (currently, Beta version) is maintained by DBCLS. However, the PubAnnotation software itself is an open source software, and any interested person or group can freely download and use it for any purpose.
Features of PubAnnotation include:
  • scalable storage of annotation data
  • automatic alignment of texts and annotations
  • Dereferenceable URIs to text spans and annotations 
  • Various satellite tools connected through REST API
  • ...
While PubAnnotation will be used as the main platform of the integration, contributions are open for any aspect of the system and additional functionality. Any web-based systems can be connected to PubAnnotation through REST API and JSON which is fairly straightforward in most cases. Developers of PubAnnotation will willingly collaborate with volunteer contributors. See the call for tools.