Elsevier Releases Results of Alternative Energy...

AMSTERDAM, June 25 /PRNewswire/ --

    - Over 1000 Members of the Research Community View Webcast to Learn About 
Findings and New Performance Measurement Method


AMSTERDAM, June 25 /PRNewswire/ --

    Elsevier, a world-leading publisher of scientific, technical and medical
information products and services, today announced results of its SciVal
Spotlight Alternative Energy Research Leadership study. Analyzing the work of
3,000 research institutions from across the globe, the study identifies the
top 25, using a new method for determining leadership.



    Highlights of the findings were shared in a recent webcast, "Research
Leadership Redefined... Measuring Performance in a Multidisciplinary
Landscape." Over 1000 academic and government executives, researchers and
librarians joined live or viewed the recorded version to learn more about the
methodology behind the study which illustrates a new way to identify research
leaders based on output in "distinctive competencies".



    Distinctive competencies (DCs) represent expertise in specific research
areas. They reveal the degree to which institutions have constructed
multidisciplinary networks within their organization focused on achieving
specific breakthroughs. Indicating that research within the university is not
being done in isolated silos, examining output in distinctive competencies
offers a more accurate way of determining leadership in a given area than
traditional measurement methods.



    Following are the top ranked institutions in the study based on the
number of alternative energy research papers produced in distinctive
competencies (DCs):



    
    Institution                                      Country          Total 
                                                                    Papers in 
                                                                       DCs
    NASA Goddard Space Flight Center                 United States     309
    National Renewable Energy Laboratory             United States     271
    Helmholtz Centre Berlin for Materials and Energy Germany           240
    Forschungszentrum Julich                         Germany           234
    Pennsylvania State University                    United States     168
    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration  United States     121
    University of California at Irvine               United States     101
    Osaka University                                 Japan              97
    California Institute of Technology               United States      97
    Harvard University                               United States      84
    Tsinghua University                              China              83
    Shanghai Jiaotong University                     China              81
    University of Colorado                           United States      80
    Imperial College London                          Great Britain      79
    Tohoku University                                Japan              71
    Eindhoven University of Technology               Netherlands        69
    National Research Council of Canada              Canada             66
    Nanyang Technological University                 Singapore          64
    National Cheng Kung University                   Taiwan             61
    University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign       United States      61
    Korea Institute of Science and Technology        Korea              54
    University of Science and Technology of China    China              54
    Massachusetts Institute of Technology            United States      53
    Los Alamos National Laboratory                   United States      52
    Kyoto University                                 Japan              52





    "As research becomes more multidisciplinary in nature, it is increasingly
difficult to find actionable information with respect to output," said Jay
Katzen, Managing Director Academic & Government Products at Elsevier and one
of the webcast presenters. "In today's uncertain economic times, it is even
more critical that academic executives get the right insight to make
strategic decisions on everything from funding allocations to hiring."



    "There is a common misperception that the most significant research is
being conducted at only a handful of top-ranked universities," added Dick
Klavans, Senior Development Advisor for Elsevier A&G and also a presenter at
the webcast. "There is a need to look beyond total paper counts as leaders in
specific sub-topics exist within all levels of the university rankings.
Examining distinctive competencies shines a light on overlooked output and
unrecognized leaders."



    Based on the top 50 institutions globally, the study also analyzes
country output in the three main alternative energy sub-topics or topic
groups including solar/photovoltaic, fuel cells and environmentally-related
areas (such as efficiency, renewable energy, biomass, wind, etc.).



    Following is a country-specific breakdown of each topic group by total
published papers, total papers in DCs and the percent of papers in DCs. Total
papers indicate the breadth of research conducted by an institution whereas
the percent of papers in DCs demonstrates the depth of research.



    
    Solar/Photovoltaic Research*
    
    Country            Total Papers  Papers in DCs  % in DCs
    United States          893            454        51%
    Japan                  455            149        33%
    Germany                370            335        91%
    China                  246            58         24%
    Taiwan                 135            61         46%
    Great Britain          117            53         46%
    Netherlands             79            44         56%
    So. Korea               76                        0%
    Italy                   68            21         31%
    Switzerland             53            46         85%
    Singapore               38            32         85%
    Canada                  20                        0%
    Hong Kong               13                        0%
    
    Fuel Cell Research*
    
    Country            Total Papers  Papers in DCs  % in DCs
    United States          1006           377        38%
    China                  574            157        27%
    Japan                  531            94         18%
    So. Korea              296            76         26%
    Canada                 220            66         30%
    Germany                145           110         76%
    Great Britain           95            25         27%
    Netherlands             88            25         29%
    Taiwan                  86                        0%
    Singapore               76            31         41%
    Italy                   57                        0%
    Switzerland             49                        0%
    Hong Kong               18                        0%
 
    Environmentally-Related Energy Research*

    Country            Total Papers  Papers in DCs  % in DCs
    United States          1997           797        40%
    China                  425             75        18%
    Japan                  216                        0%
    So. Korea              164                        0%
    Canada                 130                        0%
    Hong Kong               94            25         27%
    Switzerland             84                        0%
    Taiwan                  72                        0%
    Netherlands             69                        0%
    Singapore               45                        0%
    Italy                   44                        0%
    Great Britain           44                        0%
    Germany                 23            23      100.0%





    * Please note that when a country has 0% of its papers in DCs it does not
indicate they are not publishing papers in the area but that they are being
developed as isolated pieces rather than part of a larger effort.



    "Although the United States is the most prolific across all of the topic
groups, Germany is a formidable competitor in solar/photovoltaic," explained
Kevin Boyack, Senior Development Advisor for Elsevier A&G, study analyst and
webcast presenter. "Not only is Germany not far behind in terms of the number
of papers in this topic group, it is ahead of the United States when it comes
to the percentage of papers in distinctive competencies. What this indicates
is that there is significant depth to the work being conducted in
solar/photovoltaic in Germany and that the country has built a meaningful
network focused on achieving breakthroughs in this area."



    For more information on the study or a copy of the findings report, which
will be available in August, please contact Amanda Sham. To access the
recorded version of the "Research Leadership Redefined... Measuring
Performance in a Multidisciplinary Landscape" webcast please log on to:
http://www.scival.com/webcast.



SciVal Spotlight Alternative Energy Research Leadership Study Methodology

    The study analyzes the alternative energy work of 3,000 research
institutions (primary universities) using SciVal Spotlight, Elsevier's new
research performance measurement tool which will be released later this
summer. Moving beyond the traditional method of measuring research output by
journal count, the SciVal Spotlight tool is built on a more detailed model of
the current structure of science. The model, covering almost all of the
science being conducted across the globe, was developed using co-citation
analysis of a comprehensive database including 5.6 million separate papers
published between 2003 and 2007 and another 2 million of the heavily cited
reference works within these papers.



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. Working in partnership with the 
global science and health communities, Elsevier's 7,000 employees in over 70 
offices worldwide publish more than 2,000 journals and 1,900 new books per 
year, in addition to offering a suite of innovative electronic products, such 
as ScienceDirect (http://www.sciencedirect.com/), MD Consult (
http://www.mdconsult.com/), Scopus (http://www.info.scopus.com/),
bibliographic databases, and online reference works.



    Elsevier (http://www.elsevier.com/) is a global business headquartered in
Amsterdam, The Netherlands and has offices worldwide. Elsevier is part of
Reed Elsevier Group plc (http://www.reedelsevier.com/), a world-leading
publisher and information provider. Operating in the science and medical,
legal, education and business-to-business sectors, Reed Elsevier provides
high-quality and flexible information solutions to users, with increasing
emphasis on the Internet as a means of delivery. Reed Elsevier's ticker
symbols are REN (Euronext Amsterdam), REL (London Stock Exchange), RUK and
ENL (New York Stock Exchange).


    
    Name: Amanda Sham
          Jessica Disch
    Phone [phone]
    E-mail: [e-mail]
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