Elsevier Launches Global Online Community of Research Administrators and Managers

BOSTON, March 1 /PRNewswire/ -- Communispace, a pioneer of online customer insight communities for some of the world's leading brands, and its client Elsevier, a leading publisher of scientific and technical products and services, today announced the creation of a brand new online community of 150 research administrators and managers from all over the world. The community will provide an open forum for members to connect with fellow research administrators and managers from across the globe, discuss the latest trends in scientific research and exchange ideas to help shape new Elsevier concepts and products. Through online discussions and collaborative projects, Elsevier will solicit feedback from this core group of its customers on SciVal, its product suite designed to help researchers explore grant opportunities, obtain funding and share ideas across disciplines.

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"Today's ever-changing technology landscape has had a significant impact on the research field and made the industry increasingly electronic," said Juliette Goetzee, head of marketing relations, A&G products at Elsevier. "Compounding this development is the fact that global collaboration and cross-disciplinary research teams are becoming more prevalent, resulting in a variety of challenges for research administrators and managers. By interacting directly with this group in our community, we can better understand the unique circumstances  they're facing and ensure that our solutions address their most pressing needs—both now and as they evolve in the future."  

The research administrator community is the third international community Elsevier has launched with Communispace. In 2008, the companies partnered to create a community of librarians and another comprised of scientists and researchers to test prototypes, understand how to address the unmet needs of these groups and engage community members in the product development process. When Elsevier introduced its SciVal product suite to address the increasingly complex responsibilities of research administrators and managers, the company wanted to obtain similar feedback to ensure that the solution is as relevant and useful as possible.

Through a variety of community discussions and facilitated activities, Elsevier will use the community to ensure the SciVal solutions help institutions and individuals alike evaluate, establish and execute upon their research strategies efficiently and easily. The benefits of the community extend beyond tangible business results for Elsevier. By uniting this geographically disparate group of academics, Elsevier is providing them with a forum to discuss issues, exchange ideas and suggestions and share knowledge that could benefit the larger research community on a global scale. International collaboration and cross-discipline research are increasingly preferred by grant committees, and the diverse make-up of Elsevier's research administrator community makes it ideally suited to address these trends. Additional benefits of community participation include:

• The opportunity to discuss issues affecting the academic industry overall and how they impact the research administrator and manager role specifically
• The chance to learn about regulatory and policy issues affecting research in different countries
• A forum to share best practices with colleagues from developed and developing countries
• The ability to help Elsevier shape concepts and develop products to better suit the industry's needs

"Elsevier has always been known for its commitment to excellence in academia and its world-class reputation is largely due to its continued innovation," said Maria Rapp, managing director, Europe at Communispace. "By using online communities to unite its global customer base, Elsevier is extracting unprecedented insights that can not only improve its own products, but also inform developments that will benefit the research industry as a whole."

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 and Cell, and close to 20,000 book titles, including major reference works from Mosby and Saunders. Elsevier's online solutions include ScienceDirect, 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 ticker symbols are REN (Euronext Amsterdam), REL (London Stock Exchange), RUK and ENL (New York Stock Exchange).

About Communispace

The world's most admired brands turn to Communispace Corporation, the leader in generating game-changing insights via private online customer communities. Founded in 1999, the company has created more than 350 customer communities for industry leaders such as Kraft, Hewlett-Packard, Charles Schwab, Hallmark, Unilever, GlaxoSmithKline, and Hilton Hotels Corporation. Headquartered in Watertown, Massachusetts, the company has offices in Atlanta, Chicago, London, New York, San Francisco, as well as San Remo, Italy and Sydney, Australia. For more information, please visit: www.communispace.com.

SOURCE Communispace Corporation