Elsevier and the University of Birmingham Launch First Large Scale Investigation Analysing Discourse Used in Interdisciplinary Research

BIRMINGHAM, England, November 6, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --

Corpus linguistics analyses applied across selection of Elsevier journal content

Elsevier, a world-leading provider of scientific, technical and medical information products and services, and the University of Birmingham, UK, the Times University of the Year in 2013, announce the launch of an Investigation of the Discourse of Interdisciplinary Research (IDRD). It is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (UK).

Research is increasingly bringing together scientists from different fields and this investigation aims to analyse how this development is reflected in the language used in scholarly articles and how trends in the discourse used can support research policy development.

IDRD was launched on 30 August 2013 and will run for two years under the direction of Dr Paul Thompson, Director of the Centre for Corpus Research at The University of Birmingham. The investigation will be based on content published in Elsevier's journal Global Environmental Change, a highly interdisciplinary journal, and a group of selected control Elsevier journals. Corpus linguistics, a relatively new area of analysis for applied linguistic research, will be used to examine the discourse employed in the journals. Elsevier will provide free access to the journals' content allowing for full text mining of the papers published. Elsevier will also provide analytical support and will help contact journal editors, reviewers, and authors for additional qualitative surveys and interviews.

"I am delighted that Elsevier are providing access to the content required for this study, including the complete holdings of Global Environmental Change. This will allow us to conduct corpus linguistics analyses of research articles on a scale never attempted before," said Dr Paul Thompson.

"We are excited and proud to support the University of Birmingham in this investigation. Interdisciplinarity in research is changing the ways in which both scholars and publishers work, and we welcome this initiative to analyze and better understand it," said David Clark, Senior Vice President of life sciences and social sciences journal publishing at Elsevier.

With the results of the investigation both Elsevier and the University of Birmingham's Centre for Corpus Research aim to provide research councils with a fuller understanding of the distinctive features of discourse practices in interdisciplinary research. They hope to be able to deliver insights into the nature of communication between researchers from different disciplines so that interdisciplinary research can be better promoted and managed.

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About the University of Birmingham

The Times and Sunday Times University of the Year 2013-14, the University of Birmingham is a vibrant community and an internationally-renowned institution, in the top 75 globally. With approximately 28,000 students and 6,000 members of staff, the University has a bold strategy to develop its global reputation by enhancing its international presence and collaborations. It has a major economic impact as an educator, employer, research leader and world-leading university, generating nearly £1.1 billion of spending a year in the West Midlands economy and supporting almost 12,000 jobs locally.

About The Centre for Corpus Research

The Centre for Corpus Research conducts research into the uses of language in a wide variety of contexts, using corpus resources and analysis tools. The University of Birmingham has long been at the forefront of corpus linguistics; under the direction of John Sinclair, Birmingham hosted the Cobuild project, and developed corpus lexicography in the 1980s.

The Centre offers training workshops for staff, visiting researchers and research students, and does consultancy work for outside clients. It also organises seminars and conferences on corpus research and applications. The Director of the Centre is Dr Paul Thompson (p.thompson@bham.ac.uk).

About Elsevier

Elsevier is a world-leading provider 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 ScienceDirect, Scopus, SciVal, Reaxys, ClinicalKey and Mosby's Suite, which enhance the productivity of science and health professionals, helping research and health care institutions deliver better outcomes more cost-effectively.

A global business headquartered in Amsterdam, Elsevier employs 7,000 people worldwide. The company is part of Reed Elsevier Group PLC, a world leading provider of professional information solutions. The group employs more than 30,000 people, including more than 15,000 in North America. Reed Elsevier Group PLC is owned equally by two parent companies, Reed Elsevier PLC and Reed Elsevier NV. Their shares are traded on the London, Amsterdam and New York Stock Exchanges using the following ticker symbols: London: REL; Amsterdam: REN; New York: RUK and ENL.

Media contact
Sarah Huggett
Senior Publishing Information Manager, Elsevier
+44-1865-84-3459
s.huggett@elsevier.com