AMSTERDAM, December 8 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- - Multiple Leading Institutions Purchase New Strategic Decision-Support Tool Elsevier, a world-leading publisher of scientific, technical and medical information products and services, today announced that several universities have purchased its new SciVal Spotlight tool. The institutions, including National Chiao Tung University (Taiwan), St. Petersburg University (Russia), University of Stellenbosch (South Africa) and the University of Vigo (Spain), will use the tool to analyze current output in order to enhance their near and long term research strategies. SciVal Spotlight is a customizable web-based tool that offers institutions a multidisciplinary perspective of research performance. Using an innovative visualization technique, the tool produces customized maps that provide graphical views of an institution's research output over time and across scientific fields, focusing on specific topical areas. "We've selected SciVal Spotlight to help us understand our competitive strengths as well as assist us in making the best possible investments for our university," said Chain-Shu Hsu, Vice President of National Chiao Tung University. "We are excited about the tailored insight the tool can offer and its ability to give us a better understanding of our position in the global research landscape." "By pinpointing a university's topical strengths and identifying leading researchers and institutions in each area, SciVal Spotlight is designed to help academic decision-makers optimize funding allocations and enhance hiring and collaboration decisions," said Helen de Mooij, Academic & Government Products Group, Elsevier. "We are pleased at the interest we are seeing in the market as universities recognize the value the tool can offer in evaluating, establishing and executing research strategies." About the Elsevier SciVal Suite The SciVal suite of services delivers intelligence solutions to help the academic and government research communities evaluate, establish and execute their research strategies more effectively. The suite currently includes SciVal Spotlight and SciVal Funding. With traditional research performance measurement options unable to capture the reality of today's multidisciplinary scientific landscape, the SciVal Spotlight tool is designed to provide research managers with a more accurate picture of any institution's unique research strengths and opportunities. SciVal Funding is an online funding intelligence solution that enables researchers and research administrators to better compete for research funding. The tool provides access to over 5,000 funding sources and includes targeted recommendations based on pre-populated research profiles as well as an extensive history of awarded grants. For more information on the SciVal Suite, please visit http://www.scival.com/. About Elsevier Elsevier is a world-leading publisher 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 (http://www.thelancet.com/) and Cell (http://www.cell.com/), and close to 20,000 book titles, including major reference works from Mosby and Saunders. Elsevier's online solutions include ScienceDirect (http://www.sciencedirect.com/), Scopus (http://www.scopus.com/), Reaxys (http://www.reaxys.com/), MD Consult (http://www.mdconsult.com/) and Nursing Consult (http://www.nursingconsult.com/), which enhance the productivity of science and health professionals, and the SciVal suite (http://www.scival.com/) and MEDai's Pinpoint Review (http://www.medai.com/), which help research and health care institutions deliver better outcomes more cost-effectively. A global business headquartered in Amsterdam, Elsevier ( http://www.elsevier.com/) employs 7,000 people worldwide. The company is part of Reed Elsevier Group PLC (http://www.reedelsevier.com/), 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). Contact: Name: Jessica Disch Phone: +1-212-752-8338 E-mail: DATASOURCE: Elsevier CONTACT: Contact: Name: Jessica Disch, Phone: +1-212-752-8338, E-mail:

Copyright