KnowledgeLink Newsletter
The Thomson Scientific Asia Pacific Pick of 2006
The Asia Pacific region has seen a dramatic increase in scientific literature and patent output over the last 10 to 15 years. Thomson Scientific first established a presence in Asia in 1993, in Tokyo. Since then, to meet the demand for value added scientific information within — and from — this region, we have opened additional offices in Australia, China, India, Korea, Singapore and Taiwan. 2006 has been our busiest year yet, as you will see from this snapshot of the year's activities.
See also our Pick of 2006 for the rest of the world.
Australia and New Zealand
China
India
Japan
Korea
Taiwan
The rise of Asia Pacific innovation
Australia and New Zealand
Leading Australian Universities invest in National Citation Report
In November we were pleased to announce that Australia's Group of Eight, which represents Australia's leading research universities, have purchased National Citation Report. National Citation Report is an electronic database of a nation's journal articles in the sciences, social sciences, and humanities. The Australia dataset contains bibliographic information for papers published by Australian researchers, including annual total citation counts for each paper along with value-added metrics for benchmarking, ranking, and evaluating research. This provides unique additional information to that already available via the ISI Web of KnowledgeSM solution that all institutions in Australia can access. "Access to the data will help with our ongoing analysis of the university's performance internationally and nationally" said Professor Doug McEachern, deputy vice-chancellor of Research and Innovation at The University of Western Australia (UWA).
Learn more
Wider trademark coverage for Australia and South Korea
During 2006 we expanded coverage of Asia Pacific trademarks with the addition of the TRADEMARKSCAN®-Australia and TRADEMARKSCAN®-South Korea databases to the Dialog® platform. TRADEMARKSCAN–Australia (File 656 on Dialog) contains more than 482,000 unpublished applications and published registrations filed with IP Australia from 1906 to the present. Its addition in October took Dialog coverage to 29 trademark files, representing records from 28 countries and the 50 U.S. states, as well as marks registered through the Madrid Protocol and the Madrid Agreement (International Register) and Community Trademark system — totaling over 17 million records.
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Partnership with University Of Melbourne leads to powerful new research assessment and collections management tool: Journal Use Reports
Australia's University of Newcastle and University of New South Wales became the first two universities to take advantage of our new Journal Use Reports® tool in September. This revolutionary research assessment and collections management tool was developed in partnership with the University of Melbourne and four U.S. universities. It is designed to harness the power and depth of Thomson Scientific citation information and combine it with a library's own usage data to paint a unique picture of the utility of the library's resources. "Journal Use Reports takes the evaluative responsibility off of our researchers, freeing up more time for their studies and streamlining the assessment process. No other product offers this capability. It's fantastic. You can do so much with it." said Shirley Sullivan, electronic information coordinator at the University of Melbourne .
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Fifth New Zealand university invests in the entire Web of Science collection
Prior to 2005, Web of Science® — the multidisciplinary bibliographic database accessed via ISI Web of Knowledge — offered backfiles to 1945. In early 2005 we introduced the Century of Science™ initiative which added carefully-selected published research backfiles from the first half of the 20th century (1944 to 1900), with navigation and cited reference data. In August we were pleased to announce that Victoria University of Wellington had become the fifth university in New Zealand to purchase the entire Web of Science® data collection, with backfiles to 1900. "The Century of Science is a significant online resource for our researchers and reinforces the University's commitment to build the library's capability to support high-quality research," said Melanie Mills, electronic collections librarian.
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China
R&D and innovation roundtable
In May 2006 we hosted a 'Think Smart R&D and Innovation Roundtable' in Beijing. The event marked the launch of results of an R&D budget survey conducted by Economist Intelligence Unit for Thomson Scientific. This revealed that two thirds of Asian executives are set to boost R&D budgets over the next three years, reflecting the critical importance of innovation to maintaining a competitive advantage. The country most expected to benefit from this investment is China, with 48.15 per cent of companies stating it will have the biggest share of its R&D spend, ahead of India (24.07 per cent), US (21.69 per cent) and Europe (20.99 per cent). Up to 40 per cent of respondents cited the Chinese Government's active support for R&D as China's greatest asset.
More about the survey
Visit our Innovation in China web site
Innovation and intellectual property in China
Academic inventions have grown by over 300 percent in Asia from 2000 to 2005, primarily due to high academic patent output from China, where six out of the top ten overall patent assignees are academic institutes. To protect such innovation the patent regime is being reassessed and tightened. China, a relative latecomer to the construction of Intellectual Property (IP) law, is learning from the experiences of other countries. An entire section of the 11th 5-year plan is devoted to promoting independent innovation and strengthening intellectual property rights, and the number of patent applications filed in China is growing on average by 25 per cent each year.
Intellectual property law in China
Patenting by academic institutions in China and elsewhere
Patents are also a key source of information for innovators — revealing crucial details of existing research, and helping to pinpoint key inventors. Thomson Scientific has established a joint laboratory for Intellectual Property Development with China's Ministry of Information Industry to equip Chinese researchers with powerful tools for patent and literature search and analysis.
Joint laboratory for intellectual property development
Sponsorship with State Intellectual Property Office
In keeping with Thomson's vision of supporting global innovation, Thomson Scientific became the first company to sponsor China 's State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) Intellectual Property Contest. The 'Thomson Scientific Cup China Public Intellectual Property Knowledge Contest' aims to improve public awareness of Intellectual Property (IP) rights and, in line with the Chinese Government's 11th Five Year Plan, to enhance the ability of innovation for Chinese enterprises.
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India
Research excellence in India
Research excellence in India was recognized in July by the 'Thomson Citation Laureate Awards'. Five research professors in India were recognized for their groundbreaking and influential contribution to, and accomplishments in, research and development (R&D) worldwide. These Awards reflected the growing influence that Indian R&D specialists are having upon the global R&D community. With its highly educated workforce, India is increasingly recognized for its innovation — a fact reflected by the growing number of Indian research papers written and worldwide citations to Indian research. From 1996 to 2000, the number of research papers written was 75,923 compared to 98,558 for the period 2001-2005, and citations rose from 113,824 during 1996-2000 to 221,563 during 2001-2005.
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Japan
Primary web resource center for Japanese librarians
In July 2006 Thomson Scientific launched the Japanese language version of the KnowledgeLinkSM resource center for librarians. This provides reference materials, product updates and much more for librarians providing access to ISI Web of Knowledge at their institutions.
Visit the resource center:
Japanese
English
Special event focusing on essential academic infrastructure for research activities
In November our Japan office hosted a special event for Web of Science users. The guest speaker was Dr. Natori from The Central Office of the University Coalition on Engineering Education (UCEE). The event, entitled 'What is the essential academic infrastructure to support Japanese research activities?' attracted 80 librarians.
Read the event report (Japanese)
Intellectual Property Management Seminar
In February 2006 we hosted an intellectual property seminar with keynote speakers from Motorola and Deloitte Touche. 200 invited guests with business development, planning and management roles were invited to learn more about how these companies manage and evaluate their intellectual property portfolios.
Read the event report (Japanese)
Helping generic and API companies in Japan
Thomson Scientific was pleased to participate in the busy CphI exhibition in Tokyo in April 2006. We showcased our Horizon Global™ system designed to help generic pharmaceutical companies and strategic API manufacturers with their critical product targeting and global business development activities.
Read the event report (Japanese)
Korea
Joint seminar on journal selection with KOSEF
On October 25, 2006, Thomson Scientific and the Korean Federation of Science and Technology (KOFST) held a joint seminar on 'SCI Journal Selection Criteria' at KOFST Hall, Seoul, South Korea . In his opening remarks, the KOFST President Mr. Young Bok Chae emphasized the importance of raising the international visibility of scientific research in Korea . Approximately 270 attendees were keen to learn about the journal selection criteria of Web of Science, and about Thomson Scientific's application of 'Smart Discovery' tools. The guest speaker, Dr. Jin Bae Park of Yonsei University, also shared his experience as the editor of International Journal of Control, Automation, and Systems.
KOFST newsletters (Korean)
Science Times (Korean)
Taiwan
Research excellence in Taiwan
In the last eight years, the number of citations accredited to Taiwanese R&D practitioners has seen Taiwan rise to a ranking of eighteenth in the world, and fifth in Asia (by number of papers) behind Japan, China, India and South Korea. Taiwan currently ranks second in Asia by citations per paper, behind Japan but ahead of China and India. In November we were pleased to honor Taiwan 's leading researchers for their outstanding contributions to emerging global research fronts. David Brown, executive vice president of Corporate Markets, Thomson Scientific, presented eight leading professors with ‘Thomson Citation Laureate Awards' in a ceremony held at the Academia Sinica in Taipei. Over 100 guests from leading research institutions attended and heard keynote speeches from Dr. Ts'ui-jung Liu, vice president of Academia Sinica, Dr. Huang Mu-Hsuan of National Taiwan University, and Dr. Hung Wen-Chi from the National Applied Research Laboratories (NARL).
Visit the web site for this event
Taiwan's leading academic institution invests in research discovery
In July 2006 Academia Sinica, one of Taiwan's most prominent academic institutions, obtained access to Web of Science to help drive its effort to accelerate the development of academic research. "No other database offers this level of accuracy and detail on such a multidisciplinary scale, giving researchers the confidence to pursue a research path without missing critical data that may change results and conclusions" said Professor Shiah of Academia Sinica. Thomson Scientific's Analyze Tool, which helps researchers discover emerging ‘hot' areas and find top researchers for future collaboration, was also an important factor in Academia Sinica's decision to choose Web of Science .
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The rise of Asia Pacific innovation
National Science Indicators data published in 2005 by Science Watch® , the bimonthly newsletter of Thomson Scientific, revealed a significant increase in Asia Pacific research output over a 25 year period up to 2004. The 12 per cent increase contrasts with a 6.4 per cent reduction in United States output, against a background of increasing numbers of papers published in all regions. If current trends continue, the Asia Pacific region will likely outstrip the United States by 2011.
More about this study
This rise in innovation was a theme picked up by Mark Garlinghouse, vice president of Thomson Scientific Asia Pacific, in an interview with Europe's Zillion Business Magazine in September 2006. He is overseeing significant expansion by Thomson Scientific in the Asia Pacific region to meet the information needs for innovation in that region, both in academia and commercial R&D.
Read the interview
This has been a year of extraordinary growth in research, discovery and innovation in the region. Dramatic increases in research spending and the launch of major new initiatives show a determination to achieve progress through innovation. Thomson is proud to be a partner in the region, providing R&D professionals with the information and tools they need to continue to accelerate their scientific output.
