New Stage of Scientific Development for St.Petersburg State University Marked by Signed Agreement With Elsevier

AMSTERDAM, December 19, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --

Elsevier, a world-leading provider of scientific, technical and medical information products and services, announced today a three-year agreement with St. Petersburg State University providing access to Elsevier's SciVerse ScienceDirect , SciVerse Scopus, SciVal Spotlight and Reaxys^®.

St. Petersburg State University has collaborated intensely with Elsevier over the past eight years, being one of the first Russian universities to evaluate and subscribe to Elsevier's online resources in Russia. This three-year agreement to a number of Elsevier's key information products and solutions provides researchers at St. Petersburg State University with 24/7 access to world-class content, workflow tools and research assessment solutions.

Mr. Skvortsov, Vice Rector for Science at St. Petersburg State University said of the three-year agreement, "We believe that this collaboration with Elsevier will be mutually successful. Elsevier's resources are well-known to our researchers and are appreciated greatly. Providing continuous access to research will help us to continue to achieve our goal to move up in academic ratings."

Igor Osipov, Regional Director Elsevier Russia added, "We see and value the fact that our products and services are actively and extensively used by the St. Petersburg State University community. Through this multi-layered and long-term project, we aim to play an important role in strengthening the university's position within the global research community and bring Elsevier expertise to both young and established scientists and decision-makers. We look forward to working together with St. Petersburg State University in the years to come."

About St. Petersburg State University

Founded in 1724, St. Petersburg State University is the oldest institution of higher education in Russia.  During the 285 years of its existence the university secured the right to be acknowledged as one of the best institutions of higher education in Russia. Its rich history, modern large-scale research activities, development and innovations make the university leading in the field of Russian science.

At present St. Petersburg State University counts 32,000 students receiving education in more than 323 specialties within 20 faculties. The university's staff comprises almost 14,000 people, including nearly 6,000 teachers (1,000 Doctors of Science, over 2,000 Candidates of Science, 42 Academicians of State Academies), representing 289 academic departments. In November 2009, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed a law granting St. Petersburg State University the special status of "a unique scientific and education complex, an oldest institution of higher education in Russia being of a great importance to the development of the Russian society."

About the Elsevier SciVerse Suite

The SciVerse suite of search and discovery offerings provides the global research community access to a constantly expanding universe of content and solutions which can now be accessed in one platform. The suite currently includes SciVerse ScienceDirect, the world's largest source of peer-reviewed content containing more than 10 million articles, and SciVerse Scopus, an abstract and citation database containing 41 million records, 70% with abstracts and nearly 19,500 titles from 5,000 publishers worldwide. The platform also includes SciVerse Hub beta, which enables researchers to perform a single search across all of the SciVerse content as well as targeted web content with results ranked by relevancy and without duplication. SciVerse Applications and Developer Network allow the scientific community to build, find and use applications that enhance the SciVerse research experience.

About the Elsevier SciVal^® suite

Elsevier's SciVal suite of services supports academic and government leadership in evaluating, establishing and executing research strategies that optimize the performance of existing assets and maximize investments to enhance near and long-term productivity. SciVal tools leverage Scopus® data, Elsevier's trusted source of bibliometric data, to offer innovative yet authoritative solutions. Current suite offerings include: SciVal Spotlight™, a strategic tool that generates unique institutional and country maps of existing and emerging research strengths based on an interdisciplinary perspective of current performance; SciVal Funding™, an online solution that provides targeted recommendations on grants to pursue based on pre-populated research profiles and historical awards; SciVal Strata™, a web-based research performance tool that offers users the flexibility to construct relevant contextual data to evaluate research teams or individual researchers, using a range of indicators based on Scopus data; SciVal Experts, a semantic technology-based application that enables researchers to identify and locate sources of expertise at an individual or departmental level within and across institutions.

About Reaxys

Reaxys is a workflow solution for research chemists that provides extensive information on chemical compounds, related physical and pharmacological properties, and synthesis information. Researchers can get the experimentally validated information they need in a single overview, from source publications carefully selected for their importance and relevance to research chemists. Elsevier continues to engage with the chemistry community to ensure that Reaxys continues to reflect how chemists think and work. For more information go to: http://www.reaxys.com

Reaxys® and the Reaxys® trademark are owned and protected by Elsevier Properties SA. All rights reserved.

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 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.

A global business headquartered in Amsterdam, Elsevier employs 7,000 people worldwide. The company is part of Reed Elsevier Group PLC, a world-leading publisher and information provider, which is jointly owned by Reed Elsevier PLC and Reed Elsevier NV; the combined market capitalization of the two parent companies is approximately £12bn/€13bn. The ticker symbols are REN (Euronext Amsterdam), REL (London Stock Exchange), RUK and ENL (New York Stock Exchange).

Media contact
Galina Yakshonak
Elsevier, Russia
+7-985-72-779-67
g.yakshonak@elsevier.com