Elsevier Launches Global Online Community of Research Administrators and Managers

Academic Publishing Leader Tapping Community's Insights to Uncover Industry Challenges and Inform Product Innovation and Co-Creation

BOSTON, March 1, 2010 - Communispace, a pioneer of online customer insight communities for some
of the world's leading brands, and its client Elsevier, a leading publisher
of scientific and technical products and services, today announced the
creation of a brand new online community of 150 research administrators and
managers from all over the world. The community will provide an open forum
for members to connect with fellow research administrators and managers from
across the globe, discuss the latest trends in scientific research and
exchange ideas to help shape new Elsevier concepts and products. Through
online discussions and collaborative projects, Elsevier will solicit feedback
from this core group of its customers on SciVal, its product suite designed
to help researchers explore grant opportunities, obtain funding and share
ideas across disciplines.

(Logo: www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20091028/NE00302LOGO )

"Today's ever-changing technology landscape has had a significant impact
on the research field and made the industry increasingly electronic," said
Juliette Goetzee, head of marketing relations, A&G products at Elsevier.
"Compounding this development is the fact that global collaboration and
cross-disciplinary research teams are becoming more prevalent, resulting in a
variety of challenges for research administrators and managers. By
interacting directly with this group in our community, we can better
understand the unique circumstances they're facing and ensure that our
solutions address their most pressing needs-both now and as they evolve in
the future."

The research administrator community is the third international community
Elsevier has launched with Communispace. In 2008, the companies partnered to
create a community of librarians and another comprised of scientists and
researchers to test prototypes, understand how to address the unmet needs of
these groups and engage community members in the product development process.
When Elsevier introduced its SciVal product suite to address the increasingly
complex responsibilities of research administrators and managers, the company
wanted to obtain similar feedback to ensure that the solution is as relevant
and useful as possible.

Through a variety of community discussions and facilitated activities,
Elsevier will use the community to ensure the SciVal solutions help
institutions and individuals alike evaluate, establish and execute upon their
research strategies efficiently and easily. The benefits of the community
extend beyond tangible business results for Elsevier. By uniting this
geographically disparate group of academics, Elsevier is providing them with
a forum to discuss issues, exchange ideas and suggestions and share knowledge
that could benefit the larger research community on a global scale.
International collaboration and cross-discipline research are increasingly
preferred by grant committees, and the diverse make-up of Elsevier's research
administrator community makes it ideally suited to address these trends.
Additional benefits of community participation include:

    - The opportunity to discuss issues affecting the academic industry
      overall and how they impact the research administrator and manager role
      specifically
    - The chance to learn about regulatory and policy issues affecting
      research in different countries
    - A forum to share best practices with colleagues from developed and
      developing countries
    - The ability to help Elsevier shape concepts and develop products to
      better suit the industry's needs

"Elsevier has always been known for its commitment to excellence in
academia and its world-class reputation is largely due to its continued
innovation," said Maria Rapp, managing director, Europe at Communispace. "By
using online communities to unite its global customer base, Elsevier is
extracting unprecedented insights that can not only improve its own products,
but also inform developments that will benefit the research industry as a
whole."

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 ScienceDirect, 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).

About Communispace

The world's most admired brands turn to Communispace Corporation, the
leader in generating game-changing insights via private online customer
communities. Founded in 1999, the company has created more than 350 customer
communities for industry leaders such as Kraft, Hewlett-Packard, Charles
Schwab, Hallmark, Unilever, GlaxoSmithKline, and Hilton Hotels Corporation.
Headquartered in Watertown, Massachusetts, the company has offices in
Atlanta, Chicago, London, New York, San Francisco, as well as San Remo, Italy
and Sydney, Australia. For more information, please visit:
www.communispace.com.

    Liz Shulof
    Greenough Communications
    +1-617-275-6522
    lshulof@greenoughcom.com

Liz Shulof of Greenough Communications for Communispace Corporation, +1-617-275-6522, lshulof at greenoughcom.com