UK Higher Education Funding Bodies Choose Elsevier's SciVerse Scopus as Data Provider for 2014 Research Excellence Framework

LONDON, September 19, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --

Support for Institutions and Panels Provided Throughout the Process

The four UK Higher Education Funding Bodies (representing England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales) will use Elsevier's SciVerse Scopus database as the sole bibliometric provider for the 2014 Research Excellence Framework (REF). The Framework was developed to assess the quality of research in UK higher education institutions.

"Our role is to make the REF process easier for institutions and assessment panels, providing them with robust data to assess research", said Niels Weertman, Vice President of SciVal at Elsevier.  "Besides bibliometric services, both the submission and assessment processes will be supported by dedicated tools and helpdesk services at Elsevier."    

The team at Elsevier will provide automated matching between submitted publications and their associated metadata and citations in the Scopus database. This will be updated in real time, to assure that the maximum number of citations are counted. Assessment panels who have opted to use bibliometric data will be provided with citation information, as well as contextual information (i.e. the article is in the top 10% of cited articles) within each specific field.

About SciVerse Scopus
Covering the world's research literature, SciVerse Scopus is the largest abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature and quality Web sources with smart tools to track analyze and visualize research. SciVerse Scopus was designed and developed with over 500 users and librarians internationally. Its unique database contains abstracts and references from nearly 18,000 titles from more than 5,000 international publishers, ensuring broad interdisciplinary coverage. In addition, SciVerse Scopus not only offers users citation information about the articles covered, but also directly integrates Web and patent searches. Direct links to full-text articles, library resources and other applications like reference management software, make Scopus quicker, easier and more comprehensive to use than any other literature research tool.

About Elsevier
Elsevier is a world-leading provider of scientific, technical and medical information products and services. The company works in partnership with the global science and health communities to publish more than 2,000 journals, including The Lancet and Cell, and close to 20,000 book titles, including major reference works from Mosby and Saunders. Elsevier's online solutions include SciVerse ScienceDirect, SciVerse Scopus, Reaxys, MD Consult and Nursing Consult, which enhance the productivity of science and health professionals, and the SciVal suite and MEDai's Pinpoint Review, which help research and health care institutions deliver better outcomes more cost-effectively.

A global business headquartered in Amsterdam, Elsevier employs 7,000 people worldwide. The company is part of Reed Elsevier Group PLC, a world-leading publisher and information provider, which is jointly owned by Reed Elsevier PLC and Reed Elsevier NV. The ticker symbols are REN (Euronext Amsterdam), REL (London Stock Exchange), RUK and ENL (New York Stock Exchange).

Media contact
Harald Boersma
Senior Manager Corporate Relations, Elsevier
+31-20-485-27-36
h.boersma@elsevier.com