Overview of the Compete Program

Nowadays, scientific databases have become the bread-and-butter of particle physicists. They are used not only for citation and publication [1, 2, 3, 4], but also for access to data compilations [5, 6, 7] and for the determination of the best parameters of currently accepted models [5, 6, 8]. These databases provide inestimable tools as they organize our knowledge in a coherent and trustworthy picture. They have lead not only to published works such as the Review of Particle Physics [9], but also to web interfaces, and reference data compilations available in a computerized format readily usable by physicists. It should be pointed out at this point that one is far from using the full power of the web, as cross-linking between various databases and interactive interfaces are only sketchy. Part of the problem comes from the absence of a common repository or environment.