“Only a handful of people know that the big missing feature from the web browser – the feature that was supposed to be in from the start but didn’t make it – is the ability to annotate any page on the internet with commentary and additional information.”

— Dan Whaley, CEO and Founder, Hypothesis

Hypothesis: adding new layers of knowledge on Cambridge Core

As we continue to develop and grow Cambridge Core in response to users’ needs, Cambridge is partnering with a non-profit organization Hypothesis to enable authors, editors and readers to add annotations on top of content published online, take personalised notes, collaborate with peers, and engage in public discussion. Annotation can include text, videos, links to images or webpages, equations and tags. Each Hypothesis annotation has a unique web address (URL), functioning as a new scholarly artifact that can be shared elsewhere, including on other webpages, in email and on social media.

The Hypothesis annotation tool on Cambridge Core can now be used for the following content:

• Articles and books participating in the Annotation for Transparent Inquiry initiative
• Cambridge Elements
• Experimental Results​​​​
• The journals of the American Political Science Association: American Political Science Review, Perspectives on Politics, PS: Political Science and Politics, Journal of Experimental Political Science, Journal of Race, Ethnicity and Politics, Politics and Gender, Politics and Religion
• Stand Out of Our Light, winner of the Nine Dots Prize.

Cambridge is launching two Hypothesis annotation layers, one for comments from Cambridge authors, editors and colleagues, and a second, public layer in which anyone with a Hypothesis account can comment on content they can access. To make the process even more flexible, anyone can make private annotations or annotate in private groups.

“We are very excited to see annotation at Cambridge,” says Hypothesis VP of Partnerships Butch Porter. “This is the kind of innovation that can add incredibly valuable new dimensions to how we create and read scholarly works.”

Researchers, teachers and students are using collaborative web annotation already to hold scholarly discussion on texts and make reading more visible, active and social. By making Hypothesis a part of our publications, Cambridge is enabling our authors, editors and readers dive deeper into content and extend discussion outwards. We look forward to seeing how people use these capabilities: asking and answering questions, providing additional analysis and data, making connections to other works, joining with others to read and understand together — we probably can’t even yet imagine all the ways people will annotate.

Please check Hypothesis user guidelines to see how to view, add or report comments.