Thomson Scientific has brought China into the Web of Knowledge with a tie-up with the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The Chinese Science Citation Database (CSCD) will be the first non-English content to appear on the ISI Web of Knowledge platform.

CSCD comprises more than 1,000 scholarly science publications, more than 1.3 million records, and will be searchable from within the Web of Knowledge. There will also be links from CSCD citations to data in the Web of Science.

Most papers will have English language titles and English language subtitles, and may be searched for in English or Chinese.

Keith McGregor, executive vice president of Thomson Scientific’s academic and government strategic business unit, said: “The number of papers produced in English is increasing as many of the country’s top researchers study abroad, and the language of international science is English.”

Thomson has no immediate plans for offering translation facilities of the Chinese papers.

McGregor added: “The Chinese Academy of Science wants to promote what is happening in China, and we have a worldwide salesforce. In the UK and US there are many Chinese researchers and this is an opportunity for them to get access to Chinese scientific materials.”

Thomson has also announced an intellectual property research and analysis service. Thomson Innovation will include editorially enhanced abstracts of Chinese data, enhanced patent data and Asian patent data translated into English.

China’s scientific research output is ranked fifth in the world and is growing fast. The country’s scientists produced 69,664 papers in 2006, an increase of 16.7% on the year before.

CSCD was the first citation database to appear in China.

McGregor said Thomson was exploring the inclusion of different types of content from China and other countries alongside journal papers.

“We are looking at other regional content to be made available to customers who buy Web of Science,” he said.
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