Amsterdam, 13 April 2011 – Elsevier, a world leading publisher of scientific, technical and medical information products and services, today announced the availability of a new application, Reflect-Network, on SciVerse Applications beta. The application was developed in partnership with the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), Germany, and the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Protein Research (CPR), University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
The Reflect-Network application is integrated within the life sciences journals on SciVerse Science Direct via Reflect, a tool that tags proteins and chemicals in a document. The application recognizes genes, proteins, and chemicals mentioned within SciVerse ScienceDirect articles, and generates a graphical representation displaying the interactions or 'network' between the entities. From the graphic, researchers can then link to the STITCH network, which provides additional details about the entities and offers different ways to view the 'network' such as color-coded lines revealing modes of action, or drilling down to examine the evidence supporting each interaction.
"For researchers working in the life sciences, as in other areas, a major challenge is sifting through an extraordinary amount of information," says Dr Seán O' Donoghue, Research Scientist at EMBL. "Our goal while developing this application was to provide data in a clear and concise way for researchers to quickly understand relationships among molecular biological entities within an article."
"Today's web-based tools help researchers get a better overview of the existing scientific knowledge. By integrating two such tools - Reflect and STITCH - with scientific literature, we aim to make both the tools and the literature more useful to researchers," says Lars Juhl Jensen, Professor and Group Leader at CPR.
"The Reflect-Network application within SciVerse Applications and SciVerse ScienceDirect addresses the workflow challenges of life sciences researchers by helping them quickly understand and visualize the content of an article," said Rafael Sidi, Vice President, SciVerse Applications and Developer Network at Elsevier. "We continue to collaborate with organizations like EMBL and CPR to advance the scientific search and discovery process."
EMBL and CPR won first prize during the 2009 Elsevier Grand Challenge for Reflect, the application that powers the Reflect-Network Application.
About The European Molecular Biology Laboratory
The European Molecular Biology Laboratory is a basic research institute funded by public research monies from 20 member states (Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom) and associate member state Australia. Research at EMBL is conducted by approximately 85 independent groups covering the spectrum of molecular biology. The Laboratory has five units: the main Laboratory in Heidelberg, and Outstations in Hinxton (the European Bioinformatics Institute), Grenoble, Hamburg, and Monterotondo near Rome.
The cornerstones of EMBL's mission are: to perform basic research in molecular biology; to train scientists, students and visitors at all levels; to offer vital services to scientists in the member states; to develop new instruments and methods in the life sciences and to actively engage in technology transfer activities. Around 190 students are enrolled in EMBL's International PhD programme. Additionally, the Laboratory offers a platform for dialogue with the general public through various science communication activities such as lecture series, visitor programmes and the dissemination of scientific achievements.
About The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Protein Research
The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Protein Research at the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Copenhagen, has been established to promote basic and applied discovery research on human proteins of medical relevance; with the explicit goal of being among the leading laboratories within our focus areas. The Center operates from a significant donation from the Novo Nordisk Foundation as well as other external funding sources. In addition, the University of Copenhagen has made major contributions towards the building of the new Center laboratories which were opened during 2009. The Center operates as an integral part of the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Copenhagen and has secured world-class capabilities in a number of protein-focused research areas and disciplines.
The Center has a wide range of expertise and resources in protein production, chemical biology, disease systems biology and mass spectrometry-based proteomics as well as having dedicated research groups focused on ubiquitin modified signalling and molecular endocrinology. We are also prioritizing translational research opportunities in medicine with the aim of generating research results that are useful for facilitating drug discovery and development.
About the Elsevier SciVerse Suite
The SciVerse (www.sciverse.com) 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 (www.sciencedirect.com), the world's largest source of peer-reviewed content containing more than 10 million articles, and SciVerse Scopus (www.scopus.com), an abstract and citation database containing 41 million records, 70% with abstracts and nearly 18,000 titles from 5,000 publishers worldwide. The new platform also includes SciVerse Hub beta (www.hub.sciverse.com), 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 beta (www.applications.sciverse.com), a new module within the suite, is a marketplace and developer network that allows the scientific community to build, find and use applications that enhance the SciVerse research experience.
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 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 ticker symbols are REN (Euronext Amsterdam), REL (London Stock Exchange), RUK and ENL (New York Stock Exchange).