COMPASS ID, Inc. is a California 501(c)(3) public benefit corporation. We build open tools that map what research has studied — and what it has overlooked — beginning with the living world.
COMPASS ID, Inc. is a nonprofit research organization headquartered in La Jolla, California. We were founded on a simple observation: the world produces millions of scientific papers, but there is no map of what all that research actually covers. Knowledge concentrates on a handful of well-studied species, regions, and questions, while vast areas go unstudied — and no one can see the pattern.
We build the tools to see it. The literature itself is just an enormous pile of unstructured text — searchable for words, but not something you can ask real questions of. Our method is to have AI read every paper and attach the same accurate, structured metadata to each one: what was studied, and where. Once every paper is structured the same way, the pile becomes a database — queryable in plain language, and because location is one of the fields, mappable, showing the empty spaces as clearly as the crowded ones.
In conservation, what is not studied is easy to overlook. A species no one has studied is one no one is protecting, and a funder cannot close a gap they cannot see. We began with biodiversity because the stakes are immediate — but the same method applies to disease, agriculture, earth science, and beyond. Our goal is a public good: a shared, trustworthy picture of what humanity knows, freely available to the people who can act on it.
Each tag COMPASS ID makes uses entities from external references (IUCN, GBIF, MeSH), cites a quote from the paper, and is reviewed by a separate model. We publish our methods and report our measured accuracy openly, including in peer-reviewed venues.
COMPASS ID’s literature classification runs on Anthropic’s Claude models, supported by an award of API credits through Anthropic’s AI for Science program.
COMPASS ID was founded by Dr. Chris McCarthy, who leads the organization’s research and platform development. For partnership, collaboration, or governance inquiries, please contact us.
COMPASS ID, Inc. is incorporated as a California nonprofit public benefit corporation and is recognized by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt public charity under IRC §170(b)(1)(A)(vi). Donations are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.
✓ IRS 501(c)(3) — effective January 2, 2026Read our mission, explore the research atlases, or reach out about partnership and support.
