UNITED KINGDOM CHOOSES WEB OF SCIENCE

158 UK higher Education Institutions Now Subscribe to World's Premier Research Tool

 

Philadelphia, PA, USA-London, UK - Aug 02, 2005 — Thomson Scientific today announced that academic institutions in the United Kingdom have selected Web of Science® as their research platform of choice. A five year renewal agreement negotiated by the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) on behalf of the UK higher education community has provided UK researchers, information professionals and students with free access to an additional six million articles back to 1970. However, many universities are opting to go further with the complete package of 100 years of the world's highest impact scientific literature. Thomson Scientific is a business of The Thomson Corporation (NYSE: TOC; TSX: TOC).

Web of Science provides access to more than 8,700 of the world’s most influential journals, including complete bibliographic data, searchable author abstracts and cited references. Today, over 2,500 organizations in 80 countries subscribe to Web of Science.

When discussing the continued success of Web of Science within the UK, researchers stress the importance of one of its unique features—cited reference searching—that allows them to navigate forward, backward, and through the multidisciplinary literature to uncover all the information relevant to their work.

“Web of Science is a first port of call for me,” said Dr. Adrian Parker, head of geography, Oxford Brookes University. “The cited reference capability opens up new pathways and helps me to discover papers related to my field that I wouldn’t have found otherwise. I keep track of who is citing my work because it can sometimes start up conversations that can lead to fruitful new partnerships.”

The last two months have seen a new trend emerging as eight UK universities have made the decision to extend their holding back to 1900 with the Web of Science Century of Science initiative. The University of Leeds is one of them.

“We celebrated our centenary last year,” said Adrian Smith, faculty team librarian for Biology, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Leeds. “Our motto ‘et augebitur scientia’ (and science will be increased, or roughly, let science thrive) embodies our world class research, from Bragg's Nobel prize (1915) in crystallography to W.T. Astbury's work (1947) on the nucleic acids, and continues in medicine, science and engineering in the 21st century. Web of Science exemplifies how advances today may be built on foundations laid in the early 20th Century. The Library's decision to purchase the database shows that we recognise that research did not begin when the internet was invented.”

About JISC
 JISC – the Joint Information Systems Committee – is a joint committee of the UK further and higher education funding bodies (HEFCE), and is responsible for supporting the innovative use of information and communication technology (ICT) to support learning, teaching, and research. It is best known for providing the JANET network, a range of support, content and advisory services, and a portfolio of high-quality resources. Information about JISC, its services and programmes can be found at www.jisc.ac.uk.


Thomson Reuters (www.thomsonreuters.com), with 2005 revenues of approximately $8.5 billion, is a global leader in providing integrated information solutions to business and professional customers. Thomson provides value-added information, software tools and applications to more than 20 million users in the fields of law, tax, accounting, financial services, higher education, reference information, corporate e-learning and assessment, scientific research and healthcare. With operational headquarters in Stamford, Conn., Thomson has approximately 40,500 employees and provides services in approximately 130 countries. The Corporation’s common shares are listed on the New York and Toronto stock exchanges (NYSE: TOC; TSX: TOC).

Scientific is a business of Thomson Reuters. Its information solutions assist professionals at every stage of research and development—from discovery to analysis to product development and distribution. Thomson scientific information solutions can be found at www.scientific.thomson.com.