The Scientific Business of Thomson Reuters and King's College London Host Conference on Bibliometrics, League Tables and the Research Excellence Framework

PHILADELPHIA AND LONDON, April 23 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The Scientific business of Thomson Reuters and King's College London today announced they will be hosting Beyond the RAE 2008: Bibliometrics, League Tables and the REF. To be held at King's College London on April 30, 2008, this one-day event will help inform universities about appropriate uses of citation data in research evaluation and provide a forum to discuss and plan for future evaluative activities around the upcoming Research Excellence Framework (REF), the successor to the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE).

The conference, developed primarily for those preparing their institutions for the REF, will feature speakers from the Higher Education Funding Council (HEFC), The Center for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS), Evidence, Ltd. and Thomson Reuters, with an external perspective provided by the Australian Research Evaluation and Policy Project. The speakers will describe best practices in citation analysis and discuss strategies to assist universities in the data collection and evaluation process. In addition, case studies from King's College London, the University of Leicester, and the University of Southampton will describe these institutions' experiences in collecting and managing research output metadata.

"This timely meeting will tackle the increasing importance of bibliometric data in the university ranking systems," said Jim Pringle, vice president of product development for the Scientific business at Thomson Reuters. "With the expertise of King's College London, we are bringing together the top minds in the industry to discuss the appropriate uses of citation data in research evaluation."

"With the advent of the REF, the UK university sector faces the challenge of bibliometrics in addition to the perennial problems of collecting and validating research output data," said Mary Davies, Deputy Director of Information Services and Systems at King's College London. "We are delighted to be hosting this conference, and hope that it will be the first of a series of events providing a forum to discuss best practice in this area."

Attendees will also participate in a survey to determine the key issues they confront and their experiences to date with research evaluation. The results will be presented in the afternoon for candid discussion and planning for future activities in the era of the REF.

For more information or to register for the conference, visit http://scientific.thomson.com/kcl/

Formerly Thomson Scientific, the Scientific business of Thomson Reuters provides information and knowledge to accelerate research, discovery and innovation. Our authoritative, accurate and timely information is essential for drug companies to discover new drugs and get them to market faster; researchers to find relevant papers and know what's newly published in their subject; and businesses to optimize their intellectual property and find competitive intelligence. We create the research platforms and services of the future that will power our customers toward business and personal success. Scientific information solutions can be found at scientific.thomsonreuters.com.

About King's College London

King's College London is one of the top 25 universities in the world (Times Higher 2007) and the fourth oldest in England. A research-led university based in the heart of London, King's has 19,700 students from more than 140 countries, and 5,400 employees. King's has an outstanding reputation for providing world-class teaching and cutting-edge research. The College is in the top group of UK universities for research earnings and has an annual income of approximately pounds Sterling 400 million. An investment of pounds 500 million has been made in the redevelopment of its estate.

King's has a particularly distinguished reputation in the humanities, law, social sciences, the health sciences, natural sciences and engineering, and has played a major role in many of the advances that have shaped modern life, such as the discovery of the structure of DNA. It is the largest centre for the education of healthcare professionals in Europe and is home to five Medical Research Council Centres - more than any other university.

About Thomson Reuters

Thomson Reuters is the world's leading source of intelligent information for businesses and professionals. We combine industry expertise with innovative technology to deliver critical information to leading decision makers in the financial, legal, tax and accounting, scientific, healthcare and media markets, powered by the world's most trusted news organization. With headquarters in New York and major operations in London and Eagan, Minnesota, Thomson Reuters employs more than 50,000 people in 93 countries. Thomson Reuters shares are listed on the New York Stock Exchange ; Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX: TRI); London Stock Exchange ; and Nasdaq . For more information, go to http://www.thomsonreuters.com/.