Elsevier named Most Influential Publisher of the Last 100 Years in Biomedicine and the Life Sciences

In 1946, when the world was still recovering from World War II, Elsevier was launching journals such as Biochimica et Biophysica Acta. Decisions like this, made to advance science, technology and medicine against all odds, have earned us the title of Most Influential Publisher of the Last 100 years, awarded by the Special Libraries Association.

“Elsevier won because time and time again it has been brave, bold and collaborative,” said Tony Stankus, Director of the Special Libraries Association’s Biomedical and Life Sciences Division. “I am sure other publishers thought Elsevier was crazy, when instead they were being visionary.”

The Special Libraries Association was established in 1909 to serve librarians specialized in business, government, social agencies and academia. The SLA is now an 11,000-member professional organization of subject specialist librarians, information managers and publishing industry representatives.

The secret to success

The success of the journals is largely a result of the hard work of the editors and societies that partner with us to attract the most innovative research by the brightest authors. As Stankus commented, “Elsevier knows how to develop a working relationship with scientific and clinical societies.”

Photo caption: Elsevier Vice Chairman YS Chi accepts the Most Influential Publisher Award from W. Davenport Robertson of the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences; representatives from our journals in the Top 100 display their certificates.

Today's research landscape provides a wealth of information resources, analysis tools, collaborative networks and facilities. Yet there's a stark increase in competition, especially for job and funding opportunities. With as many pitfalls as opportunities, getting an academic career on the road to success can be a daunting challenge.

Young researchers need a plan that addresses many elements in addition to complementing the research they do. Without a plan, researchers can make unnecessary career detours and be invisible to their peers.

Elsevier recently released the 2nd edition of Charting a Course for a Successful Research Career, a guidebook of practical advice on how to plan a research career. It's written by Alan Johnson, founder of Research Management Services International, Professor Emeritus at the University of Technology in Sydney and former Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal for Parasitology, published by Elsevier, and it includes a foreword by Jay Katzen, Elsevier's Managing Director of Academic & Government Markets.

The 123-page booklet maps out the milestones young researchers should reach along the path to a successful career. It aims to help them make informed decisions, define goals and measure success, with advice on topics such as planning a career,creating a curriculum vitae, preparing a grant funding application and selecting a research discipline, supervisor and mentor. It also discusses the importance of getting recognized for their research work, how to publish and where to publish.

Information has been added and updated from the first edition of 2009, and it has been translated from English into 10 languages: Arabic, Simplified Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish.

A peer-reviewed journal, Mayo Clinic Proceedings publishes studies in clinical and laboratory medicine, clinical research, basic science research, clinical epidemiology, health policy and general and internal medicine. The journal also offers unique features such as Concise Review for Clinicians, Residents' Clinic, and Symposia on new developments in the practice of medicine.

"In recent years, Mayo Clinic Proceedings has made considerable advances in the quality of information published and the distribution of that information. The engagement of Elsevier as Mayo Clinic Proceedings' publisher will accelerate this progress and help the journal secure its position among the world's leading medical journals," according to William Lanier, M.D., anesthesiologist and Editor-in-Chief of Mayo Clinic Proceedings.

Mayo Clinic looks to further develop Mayo Clinic Proceedings' e-presence, supporting its evolution into an integrated e-Journal, improve submission-to-publication times, and continue the sustained growth of its already strong impact factor.

Glen P. Campbell, Executive Vice President and head of Elsevier's Health Sciences Journals states, "Elsevier, the Mayo Foundation, and the Proceedings have a shared goal of serving clinicians, researchers, authors, readers, and patients. This common purpose makes the Proceedings/Elsevier initiative particularly powerful."

The collaboration between these two organizations will be effective January 1, 2012. Mayo Clinic Proceedings is published monthly by Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research as part of its commitment to the medical education of physicians. The journal has been published for more than 80 years and has a circulation of 130,000 nationally and internationally. Articles are available online at www.mayoclinicproceedings.com.

Elsevier and the US-UK Fulbright Commission today honor eight early career researchers in a range of academic disciplines at the 2011 UK Scopus Young Researcher Award ceremony. More than 80 university executives, policy makers, library directors and senior researchers will attend the award ceremony at the Royal Society in London, recognizing the outstanding achievements of the best UK early career researchers.

The UK Scopus Young Researcher Award is one of the initiatives the US-UK Fulbright Commission and Elsevier have developed together to foster UK research talent. The award nominees are all researchers who have published for the first time in 2008 or more recently and have an affiliation to an institution in the United Kingdom. They were assessed by a jury of 40 consisting of former Fulbright Scholars, academic journal editors and other discipline-specific experts. Their assessment was based on publication and citation information provided by SciVerse Scopus, Elsevier's abstract and citation database.

The 2011 UK Scopus Young Researcher Award Winners are: Health & Medical Sciences: Lucy Asher, University of Nottingham; Physical Sciences: Farhan Feroz, University of Cambridge; Engineering: Konstantinos Papadikis, University of Southampton; Social Sciences: Saffron O'Neill, University of East Anglia; Biological Sciences: Laura Coates, University of Leeds; Humanities: Matt Grove, University of Liverpool; Environmental Sciences: Angela Druckman, University of Surrey Mathematics: Mladen Savov, University of Oxford.

The jury also selected three institutions to be presented with the 2011 Scopus Fostering Young Researchers Institutional Award. The Universities of Manchester, Oxford and Southampton will receive this award for having trained 11 of the shortlisted candidates. Michael Arthur, Vice Chancellor of the University of Leeds, Chair of the Russell Group and Chair of the jury, co-presented the awards with Ron Mobed, Elsevier's CEO Science & Technology. "A part of the UK's strength in research is the ability of universities to attract and train excellent researchers," said Arthur. "The level of excellence of the researchers we honor here tonight is a reconfirmation of the UK's continued excellence in global research."

"This award event is about taking a step back and recognizing that UK researchers are making a significant impact in a large range of research disciplines," added Mobed. "But also to acknowledge the institutions that foster these young researchers. The pool of talent we have been able to draw from to ultimately select the eight winners was enormous, which emphasizes the UK's ability to create a competitive yet collaborative environment for researchers."

Elsevier, a global leader in medical and health information, provides technology and content solutions designed to improve healthcare quality while reducing cost. The Elsevier Clinical Decision Support (CDS) business delivers on this promise at the point of care through actionable clinical content, care planning and documentation, drug reference and decision support, learning and performance management, and data mining and outcomes analytics solutions for provider, pharmacy and payer organizations. Our world class information and point-of-care technology solutions optimize decisions and actions to improve the overall quality, safety and cost-effectiveness of care.

Our CDS solutions deliver alert providers to potential complications and help practitioners find the answers they need, whether they're treating patients, learning a medical procedure or reviewing the latest evidence to support a treatment plan. Our CDS tools are used by a growing number of hospitals, private practices, pharmacies, government agencies and insurance plans.

Technology and research constantly impact the face of medicine. For institutions tasked with promoting skills and knowledge advancement among care providers, the challenge then becomes maintaining access to the most current content to support evidence-based care, and tools to standardize the way clinical and practical skills are taught. Deployment of powerful reference and education tools offer the ability to promote caregiver competence and confidence, enhance the application of knowledge and skills in clinical settings, and help ensure compliance while improving the quality of patient care. CDS provides a range of solutions by organization type, by role, by need and by brand.

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 and Cell, and close to 20,000 book titles, including major reference works from Mosby and Saunders. Elsevier's online solutions include SciVerse ScienceDirect, SciVerse Scopus, Reaxys, MD Consult and Nursing Consult, which enhance the productivity of science and health professionals, and the SciVal suite and MEDai's Pinpoint Review, which help research and health care institutions deliver better outcomes more cost-effectively.