Fifteen more libraries join OCLC WorldShare Management Services community

May 31, 2012

Fifteen more libraries have announced that they have selected OCLC WorldShare Management Services, the first cooperative, Webscale library management services that streamline cataloging, acquisitions, circulation, license management and workflows, and offer a next-generation discovery tool for library users. This brings the number of libraries worldwide committed to using WorldShare Management Services to 210.

“UNCG believes that WorldShare Management Services are the next major advance in library cooperation,” said Tim Bucknall, Assistant Dean of University Libraries and Head of Electronic Resources and Information Technologies, University of North Carolina at Greensboro. “The services significantly reduce redundant and duplicative effort across libraries, thereby allowing each library to focus on their unique content and strengths.”

Among the new subscribers:

Bay de Noc Community College, Escanaba, Michigan
Criswell College, Wallace Library, Dallas, Texas
Crown College, Watne Memorial Library, St. Bonifacius, Minnesota
Dordt College, John and Louise Hulst Library, Sioux Center, Iowa
Franklin Pierce University, Frank S. DiPietro Library, Rindge, New Hampshire
Fuller Theological Seminary, David Allan Hubbard Library, Pasadena, California
Huntingdon College, Houghton Memorial Library, Montgomery, Alabama
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California
Pasadena City College, Shatford Library, Pasadena, California
Plymouth State University, Lamson Library, Plymouth, New Hampshire
Santa Barbara City College, Luria Library, Santa Barbara, California
Santa Clara County Law Library, San Jose, California
Southeastern University, Steelman Library, Lakeland, Florida
UCSF Medical Center at Mount Zion, H.M. Fishbon Memorial Library, San Francisco, California
University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG), Greensboro, North Carolina

ProQuest Enables Worldwide Access to Virtual Royal History

May 31, 2012

Executives from Ann Arbor-based ProQuest were present as Queen Elizabeth II officially launched a unique, online view into royal history: a digital retrospective of the complete personal journals of Queen Victoria, enabling the first-ever access to the private records of one of the world’s most influential public figures. Renowned for its expertise in making rare, fragile works accessible to broad audiences, ProQuest is a partner in the project along with University of Oxford’s renowned Bodleian Libraries and the Royal Archives.

“ProQuest is deeply proud to be associated with this historic project and honored that Her Majesty has personally launched Queen Victoria’s Journals in this Diamond Jubilee year,” said Rod Gauvin, ProQuest Senior Vice President. “We’re also absolutely delighted to enable this content to be accessed and used by scholars worldwide. These journals provide a singular and important view into the life and work of Queen Victoria and of British political and social history.”

ProQuest’s sophisticated digitization and search technologies have been combined with the content and subject expertise of the Bodleian Libraries and the Royal Archives. In just eight months, the organizations have enabled 43,000 pages of Queen Victoria’s thoughts and experiences to be explored in an image-rich and easy-to-use website –www.queenvictoriasjournals.org. The launch date marks the birthday of Queen Victoria and coincides with a 60-year reign of HM Queen Elizabeth II — a ‘”Diamond Jubilee” year milestone that is uniquely shared by both monarchs.

Queen Victoria’s journals have never been published in their entirety before and were only accessible by appointment at the Royal Archives at Windsor Castle. Global public access to the website is available through June 30. After which a specialized version for libraries will become available from ProQuest, enabling access for scholars, researchers and the general public around the world.

Queen Victoria was a prolific writer and recorded her thoughts and experiences almost daily, from age 13 and continuing until just weeks before her death in 1901. Her journals provide a fascinating insight into her life as Queen, often revealing the personal impact of world events. In addition to exposing previously unrecorded moments of significance, such as meetings with her Prime Ministers and other world leaders, the journals also show an unexpectedly intimate side to Queen Victoria. She writes of her early romance with Prince Albert: “He clasped me in his arms, and we kissed each other again and again!” (10 Feb 1840), and later in life, she describes the loneliness of widowhood: “Here I sit lonely and desolate, who so need love and tenderness” (10 March 1863).

Online access to Queen Victoria’s Journals includes features for easy browsing and reading. Pages from the journals can be searched by date or place of writing, and transcriptions of each page–searchable by keyword are currently provided for the period up to 1840, with further releases planned throughout the year. An interactive timeline and drawings by Queen Victoria, along with essays about aspects of Queen Victoria’s life, authored by Sir Roy Strong, Laurence Goldman and Peter Ward-Jones among others, add further perspective.

Queenvictoriasjournals.org is open worldwide through June 30th. To learn more about worldwide access after July 1, visit www.proquest.com.

Elsevier announces evidence-based skills database designed for respiratory care professionals

May 31, 2012

Elsevier, the leading provider of scientific, technical and medical information products and services, today announced the availability of a new skills product for respiratory care professionals Mosby’s Respiratory Care Skills.

Mosby’s Respiratory Care Skills gives respiratory therapists the first and only online skills database based on the latest evidence and clinical guidelines. This new collection follows the Mosby’s Skills model, providing evidence-based and standardized skills and procedures, with competency testing and documentation. Mosby’s Skills is an online skills reference and competency management resource designed to meet the respiratory therapy education and development needs of today’s healthcare organizations using an interdisciplinary approach to care.

Based on the most current evidence, each skill features a quick sheet, checklist, illustrations, multimedia demonstrations, and more to provide thorough explanations that help all types of learners master important skills. Mosby’s Respiratory Care Skills currently features 42 skills, with more launching later in 2012 and 2013. Current skills include:

Compliance and Resistance Measurement
End Tidal Carbon Dioxide Monitoring
Intrapulmonary Shunt Calculation
Mechanical Ventilation: Airway Pressure Release Ventilation
Oxygen Therapy for Patients with an Artificial Airway
Peak Expiratory Flow Measurement

“At Elsevier, we are committed to helping healthcare providers by creating evidence-based tools to use at the point-of-care and really improve clinical outcomes,” said Barbara Nelson Cullen, Vice President, Strategy and Content Development, Elsevier. “By expanding Mosby’s Skills to the respiratory care professional market, we broaden the resources available to the interdisciplinary care team.”

Research collaboration platform Mendeley expands with funding from Eurostar

May 31, 2012

Pan-European partnership and government funding helps change the way research is done

Support from European funding program helps startup become the transformational force in academic research

Financial and ideological backing from EUREKA Eurostars, an R&D initiative funded by the European Community and the UK’s Technology Strategy Board, has helped rapidly establish Mendeley as a serious player in the academic industry.

Mendeley is one of the world’s largest research collaboration platforms, helping millions of researchers and scientists organize their research, collaborate with others online, and discover the latest papers in their subjects. Through the use of collaborative filtering technology seen on sites like Last.fm, Mendeley learns about users when they add documents to their personal libraries – it then recommends related articles that may have been missed, and helps connect them to people with similar interests.

The Eurostars project brought together Mendeley with the Estonian Technology Competence Centre in Electronics-, Info- and Communication Technologies (ELIKO) and Austria’s Competence Centre for Knowledge Management (Know-Center). Building on their complementary fields of expertise, the three organizations collaborated with one another to produce a number of Web 2.0 services for researchers that operate efficiently at large scale. The services leverage the wisdom gained from crowdsourcing in combination with exploiting modern semantic technologies (e.g. Latent Dirichlet Allocation) to produce novel tools that provide researchers with information on the impact of their research – in real time.

The resulting technological improvements and subsequent funding received from Eurostars and the UK Technology Strategy Board have allowed Mendeley to create a database of more than 225 million indexed documents, and signup over 1.6 million users from across academia and industry world-wide. It has now become the largest crowd-sourced academic research database in the world.

EUREKA Eurostars is the first European funding and support program specifically directed at small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) working in R&D. Since 2009, the UK funding body, the Technology Strategy Board has invested over £3 million into projects as part of the Eurostars program.

Eurostars stated that Mendeley is “…definitely one of the best projects that has ever come out of the program.”

Dr Paul Rübig MEP, said of the partnership: “The intergovernmental network EUREKA and the innovation project Eurostars are very successful ways to strengthen research and development within small and medium enterprises. The Eurostars project is an ideal model for the future financing of SME’s. Mendeley is a success story which highlights the excellent functioning of the program.”

Graham Mobbs, European Operations Manager from the Technology Strategy Board added: “The Technology Strategy Board is delighted to support Mendeley through the Eurostars program, which is directed at such innovative, research-oriented SMEs. The success of their MAKIN’IT project shows how pan-European co-operation and collaboration can create the environment for vital, growth-creating, technology innovation to flourish and help commercialize innovative new products and services.”

Thomson Reuters Honours Australia’s Contribution To Global Research And Innovation

May 31, 2012

Australia’s continuing influence on international scientific research and innovation was today recognised by Thomson Reuters, the world’s leading source of intelligent information for businesses and professionals. Thomson Reuters announced a total of 19 Australian-affiliated recipients including 12 of the most influential researchers and seven most innovative organisations during the 2012 Thomson Reuters Australia Citation & Innovation Awards event held at the National Press Club. The recipients were selected based on citation impact and patent analysis completed by Thomson Reuters.

This event is part of a series of Asia Pacific Research Days hosted by Thomson Reuters to recognise research excellence in the region demonstrating how various communities are leading the world through innovation in their respective fields. Similar events have taken place previously in China, India, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.

In selecting the Citation Awardees, a shortlist of candidates for each field was established using the h-index indicator which measures both the volume and impact of a researcher’s contribution to his or her field. The 12 Citation Awardees were then selected from the candidates using a quantitative process which identifies the average number of citations per paper their published research has over a period of time as indexed in the Thomson Reuters Web of Science® multidisciplinary citation database. This covers a 10-year period from January 2002 to October 2011 for published research with at least one author affiliated to an Australian organisation. The average number of citations per paper reflects the scientific influence of the published research in the given field. For more information about each of the 12 Citation Award recipients and the methodology, visit http://ip-science.thomsonreuters.com.au/citation_innovation_awards_2012/.

The fields from which the Citation Awardees were drawn represent national strengths – either because of the size of Australia’s contribution to the global body of knowledge or because of its impact. The wide range of subject areas covered – astronomy & astrophysics, ecology, environmental studies, economics, neurosciences and psychology – illustrates the strength and diversity of academic research within Australia and the innovation inherent among its scientists.

According to Thomson Reuters Essential Science IndicatorsSM data, Australia was ranked among the top 20 nations (#17) in all fields for the influence of its scientific papers based on citation impact (citations per paper) for papers published in Thomson Reuters-indexed journals from January 2001 through 31 August 2011.

Apart from the 12 Australian Citation Awardees, seven institutional recipients of the 2012 Thomson Reuters Innovation Awards in seven categories were also recognised during the award ceremony.

Commenting on the Awards, Mr Jeroen Prinsen, senior director, Australia and New Zealand, Thomson Reuters said, “We are very pleased to once again have the opportunity to bring together a wealth of scientific and innovative talent in Australia and honour them for their immense contribution to a diversity of areas. They have shown we have everything to gain from fostering collaborations and expanding participation in research and innovation networks, which we strongly advocate at Thomson Reuters. Innovation is widely seen in today’s global economy as the principal driver for business success, and Thomson Reuters is pleased to be part of a process viewed by governments as the key to a more productive and competitive economy.”

All academic institutions and enterprises headquartered in Australia were included for consideration for the 2012 Thomson Reuters Innovation Award. The award recipients were selected based on analysis using Thomson Reuters Derwent World Patents Index® data, Thomson Innovation®, the premier IP intelligence and collaboration platform, and Thomson Data Analyzer®.

Criteria used to assess the level of innovation of candidate institutions and companies include the size of patent portfolio, success rate, extent of globalisation and influence of the innovation. The most patent prolific collaborations between the top 10 ranked universities and companies were analysed using the methodology outlined above to determine the Best Collaboration Award recipient.

The event welcome address was jointly given by Ms Anna-Maria Arabia, CEO of Science & Technology Australia, and Ms Cynthia Murphy, senior vice president, Thomson Reuters. Ms Arabia also chaired the morning panel discussion. The keynote address at the National Press Club was a discussion between Brian Schmidt, Distinguished Professor at the Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Australian National University, Australian Research Council Laureate Fellow, and winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2011; and Professor Alan Finkel, Chancellor of Monash University and President-elect of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering.

Two of the 2012 Awardees were in attendance to present the academic view of how Australia is influencing the global research and innovation landscape. They were Professor Ove Hoegh-Guildberg, University of Queensland, and Professor Colin MacLeod, University of Western Australia. Presenting the corporate view was Dr Chris Roberts, CEO of Cochlear Ltd. He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, Australian Institute of Company Directors, and Institution of Engineers Australia.

To learn more about the detailed methodology or selection criteria for the 2012 Thomson Reuters Australia Citation & Innovation Awards, visit http://ip-science.thomsonreuters.com.au/citation_innovation_awards_2012/

STM welcomes support for gold open access from PEER conference

May 31, 2012

‘Gold’ open access (OA) publication is the practical route to achieving sustainable OA, the project partners have agreed at the PEER End of Project results conference in Brussels. ThePublishing and the Ecology of European Research (PEER) project, which will report to the European Commission in July 2012, seeks to provide large-scale, robust research to inform the debate about access to publicly funded research.

The International Association of Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishers (STM) welcomes the consensus of the partners, and hails PEER as a successful collaboration.

PEER, supported by the EC eContentplus programme, is a collaboration between publishers, repositories and the research community. The project was a partnership between STM, Fondation Européenne de la Science Association (ESF), Göttingen State and University Library (UGOE), Max-Planck-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Wissenschaften e.V. (MPG) and Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et en Automatique (INRIA).

The project, which has run since September 2008, has been investigating the effects of the large-scale, systematic depositing of authors’ final peer-reviewed manuscripts on reader access, author visibility and journal viability, as well as on the broader ecology of European research, with the aim of informing the evolution of policies in this area.

Source: Scope

Nursing2013 Drug Handbook Now Available in Print

May 29, 2012

Wolters Kluwer Health, a leading global provider of information and point-of-care solutions for the healthcare industry, today announced availability of the new print edition of the Nursing2013 Drug Handbook, the best-selling drug reference for nurses. First published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins (LWW) in 1980, the Nursing Drug Handbook was the first drug handbook designed specifically for nurses.

The Nursing2013 Drug Handbook offers nurses the ability to find any drug fact in 15 seconds or less. Nearly 900 drug monographs addressing more than 3,000 generic and brand name drugs are featured. This edition adds 30 new drugs and more than 3,000 changes to clinical information including new Black Box Warnings, dosage information, overdose signs and symptoms, and adverse reactions. Monographs are consistently formatted for ease-of-use and focus on the practical information that nurses need. A comprehensive collection of pill images – more than 430 – isalso included to help nurses confidently identify their patients’ medications. The handbook allows nurses to search for desired drugs alphabetically, by pharmacologic class and by therapeutic class.

The Nursing2013 Drug Handbook is priced at $44.99 and available immediately by visiting the LWW eStore atwww.LWW.com. It also is available as a mobile application for iPhone, iPad, iTouch, and Android devices as a download on Apple iTunes and Google Play. To learn more about the Nursing Drug Handbook app visitwww.thePoint.lww.com/NDHApp, find it on Facebook at www.facebook.com/NursingDrugHandbook or follow Nursing Drug Handbook on Twitter at @nursinghandbook.

Publishing Technology drives digital strategies for 10 more scholarly publishers

May 29, 2012

Publishing Technology, the largest provider of software and services to the publishing industry, today announced agreements with 10 new scholarly publishers, further strengthening its client portfolio and online collections.

In a series of recent signings, content from six academic publishers is now open to the ingentaconnect network of over 25,000 libraries, including James Nicholas Publishers, Paris Legal Publishers, the Institute of Noise Control Engineering, Science International Corporation, the Association for Perioperative Practice and Rosenberg & Sellier Editori.

Alliances have also been formed with several Chinese content providers to extend their reach outside of China, including three of the country’s largest publishers. China Publishing Group, Guangdong Publishing Group, Hebei Publishing & Media Group and Qingdao Publishing Group—recently awarded the First Ranked Press in China and the National Key Cultural Export Enterprise honour by the government—will soon command access to an international audience of academics and researchers.

With significant upgrades and development of the platform’s core technology currently underway and user testing of e-journal discovery, access and readership in progress, the ingentaconnect portal remains the largest and most comprehensive gateway to international content for the academic community.

George Lossius, Chief Executive Officer at Publishing Technology, said: ”Global publishers are seeking new strategies and business models for capitalizing on evolving markets while the discovery, use and sharing habits of researchers, students and professionals is constantly changing. Many content providers, big and small, require an adaptable digital solution that reaches the four corners of the globe, without the need for substantial investment, and Publishing Technology is delighted to deliver this for them.”

“I continue to be excited by our growing activity in and with China. We know there is an appetite for international content in China, and our own market research indicates a healthy demand for Chinese content in the USA. Many things are afoot in our industry and I’m looking forward to the discussions at this SSP.” he concluded.

Pearson set to acquire GlobalEnglish Corporation for $90 million

May 28, 2012

Pearson’s world-leading English learning business strengthens its position in the corporate market

Pearson, the world’s leading learning company, is today announcing the acquisition of GlobalEnglish from its current ownership group for $90 million in cash.

Founded in 1997 in California, GlobalEnglish is a leading provider of cloud-based, on-demand Business English learning, assessment and performance support software. It serves more than 450 corporate customers, including 20 per cent of the Forbes Global 2000 companies, including General Electric, HSBC, Tata Consultancy Services and Unilever. Its product suite is uniquely suited to serve the needs of global professionals with a comprehensive offering – formal Business English learning coursework, informal and social learning capabilities, performance support tools, an enterprise collaboration platform, a mobile app, assessments and a premium one-on-one coaching service. GlobalEnglish’s Business English content is also entirely focused on the application of Business English to real life business situations such as composing emails and participating in conference calls, and its efficacy is highly rated by global companies and their employees. Approximately 75 per cent of GlobalEnglish’s more than 200,000 active subscribers are in fast growing economies in Latin America and Asia.

The transaction is subject to approval by GlobalEnglish’s shareholders.

The acquisition supports one of Pearson’s major priorities, which is to play a much bigger role in helping the two billion people around the world estimated to be learning English as a second or foreign language. GlobalEnglish complements Pearson’s adult English language training business, Wall Street English, by enabling Pearson to expand more rapidly into the corporate market with cost-effective and scalable cloud-based Business English software solutions and to offer the world’s pre-eminent companies a full suite of relevant products and services.

In 2011 GlobalEnglish generated revenues of approximately $42m with high renewal rates. The company has more than 200 employees across more than 20 countries and has product development offices in Silicon Valley (USA), India and Korea. Pearson will be expensing integration costs relating to GlobalEnglish in 2012 and expects the acquisition to enhance adjusted earnings per share and to generate a return on invested capital above Pearson’s weighted average cost of capital from 2013, its first full year.

John Fallon, Chief Executive of Pearson’s International education business, said:

“We are impressed by GlobalEnglish’s services and products, the ambition and professionalism of its management and staff and the positive testimonials of customers from major international corporations.

“The rise of English as a global language of business continues. This acquisition enables Pearson to play a much more systematic role in meeting the need of major companies around the world for quality, effective, scalable and relevant English language learning. We can combine services, technology, brands and content from across the Pearson family with the GlobalEnglish product portfolio to enrich the learning experience and enhance further the effectiveness of the teaching.”

Mahesh Ram, Chief Executive of GlobalEnglish, said:

“This transaction is a wonderful endorsement of the value of GlobalEnglish’s unique focus on enabling the productivity and high performance of global professionals with innovative, cloud-based Business English software. GlobalEnglish’s solutions are perfectly aligned with Pearson’s dedication to digital transformation and international expansion, and a strong complement to Pearson’s existing portfolio of offerings.

“The acquisition strengthens both businesses. It positions Pearson as a leader in providing the highest quality Business English enterprise software offerings via the cloud to the world’s leading companies, and, with Pearson’s commitment to ongoing investment in GlobalEnglish we will be able to expand our unique strengths and competitive advantages, and ultimately better serve our clients.”

GlobalEnglish will become part of Pearson’s wider Global English language teaching business which, in addition to Wall Street English, includes the provision of test preparation services and English language teaching for children in China; the worldwide publishing of print and digital teaching and learning resources to schools and universities around the world; and the Pearson Tests of English.

Appointment of a new Part-time Board Member

May 25, 2012

Ed Vaizey, the Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries, has appointed Patrick Plant to the Board of the British Library, for terms of four years, starting on 15 May 2012.

Patrick Plant is a commercial property lawyer with 25 years experience and extensive commercial contacts in the UK and abroad. Mr Plant has recently retired as an equity partner of the global law firm, Linklaters, having, for a number of years, acted as its Global Head of Real Estate where he acted as lead counsel on a number of major property projects. He remains as partner consultant with the firm responsible for a number of roles, including overseeing the firm’s global premises network. Mr Plant is also a Non-Executive Director with Falcon Property Trust.

Given his extensive experience and commercial contacts, it’s likely that Patrick Plant has a good understanding of the real estate markets both in the UK and abroad. He may even know about specific markets, such as houses for sale in scottsdale. With his legal background, he can provide valuable advice to clients on a range of real estate matters, from property acquisitions and disposals to leasing and development. Additionally, as a non-executive director with Falcon Property Trust, Mr. Plant may have a particular interest in the performance of the company’s real estate portfolio, including properties in Scottsdale. His expertise in the real estate sector can be a valuable asset to any individual or business looking to make a successful investment in the property market.

The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and one of the greatest research libraries in the world. Taken together, the scope of its remit, the scale of its operations, the range of its services and the international importance of its collections are without equal. It provides world class information services to the academic, business, research and scientific communities and offers unparalleled access to the world’s largest and most comprehensive research collection.

By 2020, the British Library aims to be a leading hub in the global information network, advancing knowledge through its collections, expertise and partnerships, for the benefit of the economy and society and the enrichment of cultural life. The Library’s collection has developed over 250 years and exceeds 150 million separate items representing every age of written civilisation and includes books, journals, manuscripts, maps, stamps, music, patents, photographs, newspapers and sound recordings in all written and spoken languages. Over 4.1 million items are consulted in the Library’s Reading Rooms every year, 812,000 visited Library events and exhibitions on 2010/11 and over 10 million people.

Board members may claim £9,130 per year for their part-time contribution, in return for approximately two days per month dedicated to the role. These appointments have been made in accordance with the Code of Practice of the Commissioner for Public Appointments. Appointments are made on merit and political activity plays no part in the selection process. However, in accordance with the original Nolan recommendations, there is a requirement for political activity in the last five years (if any declared) to be made public. Mr Plant has declared no political activity.

White House Petition on Open Access to Research Speeding Along

May 25, 2012

A community-driven petition calling for the Obama Administration to open up the results of taxpayer-funded scientific research by making journal articles freely available online has opened remarkably strong. The petition, which calls for Public Access to all Federally Funded Research, was posted to the White House “We the People” website just two and half days ago, with the aim of securing 25,000 signatures within 30 days.

As of this afternoon, a remarkable 12,500+ people have signed the petition – at the rate of about 200 new signatures each hour. Researchers, patients groups, universities, libraries, students, businesses and families have all thrown their support behind this simple yet powerful idea – to make taxpayer-funded research freely accessible to the public

A broad range of Open Access supporters, including SPARC, are working to spread the word far and wide using email, a tweets, Facebook shares, blog postings – and even online videos.

Tweets on the petition (many using hashtags #openaccess and #OAMonday) have included encouragement for people to sign the petition from thought-leaders including Jimmy Wales (Founder, Wikipedia), Tim O’Reilly (Founder and CEO, O’Reilly Media) and Larry Lessig (Founder, Creative Commons).

China set to become global leader in science publishing, according to Nature index

May 25, 2012

The Nature Publishing Index 2011 China — a supplement to the 24th May 2012 issue of Nature — provides a detailed assessment of the various research strengths of Chinese institutions and cities based on their output of research articles in Nature-branded primary research journals in 2011 (with 2010 and 2009 data included for comparison). The publication also addresses China’s performance in a regional and global context through the Asia-Pacific rankings and theGlobal rankings.

According to the Nature Publishing Index 2011 China, research articles with authors from China represent 6.6% (225) of the 3425 papers published in Nature-branded primary research journals in 2011, up from 5.3% (152 papers) in 2010. By comparison, authors from China published just 12 articles in Nature-branded primary research journals in 2000. Notably, of the 225 articles published in 2011, 48 were published inNature Communications which launched in April 2010.

The top ten Chinese institutions by contribution are: the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), Peking University, Tsinghua University, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), Xiamen University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU), the University of Hong Kong (HKU), Nanjing University and BGI Shenzhen.

CAS has a strong lead, publishing 62 articles in Nature-branded primary research journals in 2011, but it must be born in mind that it is a very large institution with over 100 institutes and close to 50,000 researchers and so a high count is to be expected. Among the universities, USTC is number one ahead of Peking University and Tsinghua University, which are generally recognized to be the top two universities in China.

The top ten Chinese cities by contribution are: Beijing, Shanghai, Hefei, Hong Kong, Nanjing, Wuhan, Xiamen, Hangzhou, Shenzhen and Xi’an. These ten cities account for approximately 86% of China’s contribution to Nature-branded primary research journals in 2011, and also house 19 of the top 20 institutions in the China rankings.

The Nature Publishing Index 2011 China also presents a new analysis of ISI Web of Knowledge data, showing that China now publishes more than 10% of the world’s most cited scientific research. China increased its share of the top 1% of highly cited scientific articles from 1.85% (127 out of 6,874 articles) in 2001 to 11.3% (1,158 out of 10,238 articles) in 2011, and now ranks fourth globally. By 2014, China could surpass Germany and the United Kingdom, who currently hold second and third places. The United States, which leads the world, has seen its share of highly influential research drop from 64.3% (4,420 out of 6,874 articles) in 2001 to 50.7% (5,190 out of 10,238 articles) in 2011.

Registered natureasia.com users can log in and download the PDF of the print issue for free. If you do not already have an account, site registration is free and takes only a minute. Registration is also available in Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese.