« UNITED COLORS OF BENETTON: SPRING 2010 FASHION | Main | Toyota Unveils Compact Dedicated Hybrid Concept in Detroit »
January 8, 2010
Thomson Reuters to work with Times Higher Education: Data-Driven Profiles of World's Leading Universities & Research Institutions to be Created
Thomson Reuters, the authority on research analytics and decision support citation data for more than half a century, announced today in PHILADELPHIA and LONDON that it has begun working with thousands of institutions and research facilities to produce a one-of-a-kind resource.
This initiative, the "Global Institutional Profiles Project", will create data-driven portraits of globally significant universities and research institutions - combining peer review, scholarly outputs, citation patterns, funding levels, and faculty characteristics in one comprehensive database.
"There is a need for robust, dynamic, and above all transparent and verifiable data on scholarly performance to reshape how administrators approach institutional comparisons," said Keith MacGregor, executive vice president at Thomson Reuters. "Thomson Reuters has the proven history of bibliometric expertise and analysis to provide the foundational data and consultative elements needed to create this tool."
The dataset can be packaged and analyzed to different specifications, allowing organizations to receive custom information for their specific needs. The Times Higher Education, a London-based weekly newspaper that covers higher education issues, is the first to request a customized dataset to produce an improved version of their annual World University Rankings. The publication will work closely with Thomson Reuters to create a balanced, transparent methodology to support their influential rankings.
The Global Institutional Profiles Project has already begun with a worldwide survey of opinion leaders at key research institutions. The advice they provide will inform the project both in terms of data collected and methodologies used. According to Thomson Reuters, its goal is to be fully transparent in approach and verifiable in outcomes, so the results of the opinion survey will be published in Q1 of 2010.
• Following is the Thomson Reuters' Open Letter to University & Higher Education Institution Administrators Worldwide:
"Dear Friend:
We are writing to update you on major developments within academic rankings. As 2010 unfolds, your institution's researchers will likely receive multiple survey requests from various ranking initiatives. However, only one seeks to fundamentally change the way data is collected and analyzed.
As you're well aware, institutional rankings play an increasingly powerful and controversial role within the academic landscape. Yet many of the existing efforts have been largely criticized for being based on questionable data and flawed methodology. In response to heated industry debate, Times Higher Education, a global authority on higher education, recently announced plans to work with Thomson Reuters on revamping its popular World University Rankings. We are proud to have been chosen by Times Higher Education and believe this development underscores a major breakthrough within the rankings dialogue.
Our aim with the GLOBAL INSTITUTIONAL PROFILES PROJECT, which includes our work with Times Higher Education, is to develop a data source that provides the best informed and most effective resource to build profiles of universities and research-based institutions around the world.
As part of this initiative, some of your researchers may be contacted soon to complete our reputational survey. Their engagement is critical to ensuring this new initiative delivers what the industry has long been asking for -- an accurate representation of the institutional landscape, from the source. And we firmly believe your support is essential to notifying researchers and encouraging their participation.
We are excited to be a part of such a widespread initiative and look forward to working with you and your institution on bringing greater depth and transparency to institutional assessment."
• Thomson Reuters is the world's leading source of intelligent information for businesses and professionals. With headquarters in New York and major operations in London and Eagan, Minnesota, Thomson Reuters employs more than 50,000 people and operates in over 100 countries.
Source: Thomson Reuters
|GlobalGiants.Com|
Edited & Posted by the Editor | 12:28 PM | Link to this Post
