Amsterdam, 6 May 2010 – Elsevier and the Conference of Italian University Rectors (CRUI) have reached a multi-year agreement that will provide researchers in 60 Italian Universities with access to Scopus, the company's flagship product and the world's largest abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature. Built in collaboration with scientists and librarians from around the world and launched commercially in 2004, Scopus has since been endorsed and adopted by researchers in the world's top universities as well as international research assessment agencies.
"The contract signed with Elsevier represents a great opportunity for the entire Italian university system", says Enrico Decleva, President of the CRUI, "In fact, citation databases of peer-reviewed literature, used for many years by university libraries for bibliographic purposes, are now playing an ever-growing role in the quality assessment of scientific literature. Besides the economic advantage of a national contract for single universities, there is at least one more aspect to be taken into consideration. The contract paves the road to a wide range of cooperation opportunities with Elsevier, among which the possibility to cross-check Italian affiliations is just the most urgent one".
"We are very pleased that CRUI has decided to expand access to Scopus for most Italian universities and we see it as a first step toward a long-term collaboration to support the Italian research community with their challenges", added Niels Weertman, Director of Product Management Scopus and SciVal for Elsevier.
About CRUI
The Conference of Italian University Rectors (CRUI) is the association of state and private universities in Italy. Established in 1963 as a private association of Rectors, the CRUI has over time acquired an acknowledged institutional and representative role, as well as a practical capacity to influence the development of the university system through its intense activity of study and experimentation. Since 2001, the Conference of Italian University Rectors has been flanked on its managerial and executive functions by the CRUI Foundation, which is entrusted with developing projects and services in conformity with the strategies of the Conference of Italian University Rectors.
About Scopus
Covering the world's research literature, Scopus is the largest abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature and quality Web sources with smart tools to track analyze and visualize research. Scopus was designed and developed with over 500 users and librarians internationally. Its unique database contains abstracts and references from over 15,000 peer-reviewed journals from 4,000 publishers worldwide, ensuring broad interdisciplinary coverage. In addition, Scopus not only offers users citation information about the articles covered, but also directly integrates Web and patent searches. Direct links to full-text articles, library resources and other applications like reference management software, make Scopus quicker, easier and more comprehensive to use than any other literature research tool. For more information about Scopus please visit www.info.scopus.com.
About Elsevier
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 (www.thelancet.com) and Cell (www.cell.com), and close to 20,000 book titles, including major reference works from Mosby and Saunders. Elsevier's online solutions include ScienceDirect (www.sciencedirect.com), Scopus (www.scopus.com), Reaxys (www.reaxys.com), MD Consult (www.mdconsult.com) and Nursing Consult (www.nursingconsult.com), which enhance the productivity of science and health professionals, and the SciVal suite (www.scival.com) and MEDai's Pinpoint Review (www.medai.com), which help research and health care institutions deliver better outcomes more cost-effectively.
A global business headquartered in Amsterdam, Elsevier (www.elsevier.com) employs 7,000 people worldwide. The company is part of Reed Elsevier Group PLC (www.reedelsevier.com), a world-leading publisher and information provider. The ticker symbols are REN (Euronext Amsterdam), REL (London Stock Exchange), RUK and ENL (New York Stock Exchange).