AMSTERDAM, February 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Elsevier, a world-leading publisher of scientific, technical and medical information products and services, today announced that The University of Hong Kong (HKU) has selected its Scopus search Application Programming Interface (API) technology to continuously update its institutional repository and expert profiling system with information on where and how often researchers are being cited.

The Scopus API (http://integration.scopus.com) offers users the opportunity to creatively interact with Scopus data by building mashups. It also allows access and usage of Scopus data inside and outside of the traditional library domain through applications based on the API. The API returns Scopus data in a format that easily integrates into an application or a web site. The majority of Scopus data is already available through the API, which can currently be used to request very specific information about article references, citations and affiliations.

HKU is the first institution to show Scopus h-index, and counts of citations, documents, and co-authors for each current HKU author across the institution, in its local institutional repository, The HKU Scholars Hub (The Hub). These details are shown on The Hub ResearcherPages, an expert profiling system which showcases the research of each current HKU author. HKU uses the Scopus API to build these pages, and update them in real time.

The Scopus search API draws on live data from Scopus, the world's largest abstract and citation database. By using the API, HKU is able to populate The Hub with real-time Scopus information, increasing accuracy and enriching data with valuable citation information. The API also enables HKU to highlight its overall performance and automate the process of keeping faculty publication lists up to date through continuous electronic tracking of individual researcher output. Research metrics cumulated by paper, and by author, are brought seamlessly into The Hub and displayed on appropriate records. This flexibility is a result of a recent enhancement to the Scopus API which allows for easier and more scalable ways of implementing citation counts to instantly enrich the content available on a given platform.

Scopus search API technology helps us keep The Hub dynamically updated with high quality information, said David Palmer, Systems Librarian at Hong Kong University. We are no longer tasked with inputting all of our citations and can easily showcase our researchers and their output in real-time. The API also played a significant role in the development of ResearcherPages, which allows government, industry and academia to search and find our subject specialists for contract research, consulting or collaboration on relevant projects.

With the growing number of institutional research repositories, there is a need for an accurate system to track output, added Niels Weertman, Director of Scopus. We are excited that Hong Kong University has chosen Scopus search API to enhance their ability to monitor researcher performance as well as share their accomplishments with other institutions worldwide.

HKU plans to further enhance ResearcherPages to display other output and citation details and expects there will be new opportunities to leverage the results in key activities such as the grant application process. HKU is also using the additional bibliometric data from Scopus and others to prepare for an impending Research Assessment Exercise.

About HKU

Founded in 1911, HKU is Hong Kong's oldest university, with a long heritage of academic excellence and service to the community. Today, HKU is a world-class comprehensive research-led university, with close to a hundred of its faculty ranked by the Institute for Scientific Information as being among the world's top 1% of scientists (http://www.hku.hk).

The HKU Scholars Hub is the institutional repository of HKU, begun in 2005. It collects, preserves, and showcases the intellectual output of HKU, now numbering over 25,000 items, with over 1 million downloads in 2009. The addition of ResearcherPages has created a collective knowledge system, with author, institution, and citation databases interacting to add value to each player and institution (http://hub.hku.hk).

About Scopus

Covering the world's research literature, Scopus.com is the largest abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature and quality web sources with smart tools to track, analyze and visualize research. Its unique database contains abstracts and references from 18,000 peer-reviewed journals from more than 5,000 publishers worldwide, ensuring broad interdisciplinary coverage. In addition, Scopus not only offers users citation information about the articles covered, but also integrates web and patent searches directly from its clean and simple interface. Direct links to full-text articles, library resources and other applications like reference management software, make Scopus quicker, easier and more comprehensive to use than any other literature research tool. For more information about Scopus please visit http://info.scopus.com

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 (http://www.thelancet.com) and Cell (http://www.cell.com), and close to 20,000 book titles, including major reference works from Mosby and Saunders. Elsevier's online solutions include ScienceDirect (http://www.sciencedirect.com), Scopus (http://www.scopus.com), Reaxys (http://www.reaxys.com), MD Consult (http://www.mdconsult.com) and Nursing Consult (http://www.nursingconsult.com), which enhance the productivity of science and health professionals, and the SciVal suite (http://www.scival.com) and MEDai's Pinpoint Review (http://www.medai.com), which help research and health care institutions deliver better outcomes more cost-effectively.

A global business headquartered in Amsterdam, Elsevier ( http://www.elsevier.com) employs 7,000 people worldwide. The company is part of Reed Elsevier Group PLC (http://www.reedelsevier.com), 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).

Jessica Disch / Amanda Sham Phone: +1(212)-752-8338 E-mail: jdisch@psbpr.com / asham@psbpr.com

SOURCE: Elsevier

CONTACT: Jessica Disch / Amanda Sham, Phone: +1(212)-752-8338, E-mail:jdisch@psbpr.com asham@psbpr.com