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U Pittsburgh Adopts Mendeley Research Tool
Academic researchers have a new way to speed up the pace of scientific discovery.
Mendeley, a London-based company, this week released its new cloud-based research tool Mendeley Institutional Edition (MIE). Distributed through Dutch library subscription agent Swets, MIE performs real-time analysis on research activity. Academic institutions and research organizations can now see, in real time, what "journals their academics are reading, the journals they are publishing in, and how many readers those publications have," according to a statement released today by the company. The data is culled from the company's global research community that uses its research platform for document management, discovery, and collaboration.
MIE is designed to reduce the 3-5 year time lag of the "Impact Factor," the current method used for quantifying use of academic research journals. Universities and research organizations can monitor faculty contributions and identify trends as they emerge instead of waiting years for this data.
"I'm excited that after receiving scientific validation from the research community," said Victor Henning, CEO and co-founder of Mendeley in a prepared statement, "our data is now helping some of the world's best universities work more efficiently and get to life-changing discoveries faster. My inner nerd is going: Wow, this is freaking amazing."
The new solution has already garnered support from a number of research institutions, including the University of Pittsburgh, the University of Western Ontario, the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR), the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, and the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Research Council of Japan.
"The collaborative nature of Mendeley is a gamechanger for our institution," said Lisa Kurt, emerging technologies librarian at UNR, "where departments and colleges are working to break through their silos and focus on the best parts of the work they do. Mendeley is solving a very real problem in a rather elegant way."
More information about Mendeley Institutional Edition is available online.
About the Author
Kanoe Namahoe is online editor for 1105 Media's Education Group. She can be reached at [email protected].
