NEW YORK, April 12, 2011 — (PRNewswire) —

- Collaboration Further Helps Geoscientists Enhance Their Geological Basin Assessments and Models With More Comprehensive Insights

Elsevier, the world-leading publisher of scientific, technical and medical information products and services, today announced a collaboration with Wood Mackenzie ( http://www.woodmacresearch.com/), a top provider of research and consultancy to the energy and metals industries. This enhancement to Geofacets brings together the collection of geological maps and information sourced from Elsevier's peer reviewed earth sciences journals with high level commercial information from Wood Mackenzie, improving the customer experience and benefits of Elsevier's web-based Geofacets ( http://www.geofacets.com/) product.

Geofacets is a web-based database of georeferenced geological maps that integrates seamlessly with the workflow of geoscientists who are working in upstream exploration. Its intuitive design lets users search via keyword or map interface, and allows users to refine results via the geo-based search facets: map type, surface area and geological basins. With maps sourced from Elsevier's market-leading earth science journal collection, and map overlays that now include summary commercial information from Wood Mackenzie, Geofacets efficiently delivers insights as geoscientists gather information to assess a geological basin's characteristics, as well as its potential prospect or play for oil and gas resources.

"This is one of several planned updates that ensure we continually help our customers address their real questions and challenges," said Phoebe McMellon, a geologist and the product manager of Geofacets. "Through this enhancement, Geofacets enables users to put scientific information within a commercial context -- in a way that is easy for customers to analyze and integrate with their existing workflow."

Geofacets' maps are georeferenced and indexed according to geological basins, enabling users to quickly find maps associated with specific basins and countries, and letting users easily import maps into GIS software. Wood Mackenzie's commercial information such as success rates and fiscal regime information will be accessible through visual map overlays that users can switch on as they view maps within Geofacets. This further enhances Geofacets' over 125,000 geological maps sourced from more than 40,000 articles in Elsevier's earth sciences journals.

Alan Murray, Head of New Ventures Research at Wood Mackenzie says, "This is a great opportunity to present commercial metrics alongside scientific information. Geofacets' customers are constantly making new investment decisions and this development will allow researchers and decision makers to bring commercial thinking into their assessments in a more timely manner."

The product offers web-based access to georeferenced maps and the trusted geologic content embedded in Elsevier's journal articles. It allows geoscientists to:

- Search and view results geographically via an interactive geological map

- Search textually for relevant content by keyword, geographic location, author, etc.

- Use the advanced search to build complex query strings or conduct more target searches (i.e., caption, references, etc.)

- View detailed information about individual maps (bibliographic info, metadata, article abstract, and image permissions)

- Refine results according to map type, map surface area coverage, geographic location, keyword, author, etc.

- Access the full-text journal articles or copy-protected read-only PDF

- Download relevant content as georeferenced maps (GeoTIFF and KML) and other image formats (JPEG and TIFF)

The commercial information overlays from Wood Mackenzie will be available to all Geofacets users on the first week of April.

About Geofacets

Geofacets is a web-based, searchable database of geological maps that integrates with the geoscientist's workflow, delivering relevant content from Elsevier's market-leading earth sciences journals into visual georeferenced maps that easily integrate into GIS or other relevant software. Built upon valuable, peer-reviewed content in Elsevier's portfolio of earth science journals, Geofacets' unique interface enables geoscientists to search for geologic maps and content geographically through an in­teractive map or textually via keyword search. For more information on Geofacets, please visit http://www.info.geofacets.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 SciVerse ScienceDirect ( http://www.sciencedirect.com/), SciVerse 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).

About Wood Mackenzie

Wood Mackenzie is the most comprehensive source of knowledge about the world's energy and metals industries.

Wood Mackenzie analyses the assets, markets and companies operating upstream and downstream; in oil, gas, coal, carbon, metals and power generation. Having in-house teams dedicated to every sector means Wood Mackenzie is the only provider with an integrated perspective across the entire industry.

Wood Mackenzie's reputation has been built on the quality of its proprietary analysis. It informs both research analysis and bespoke consulting advice.

Wood Mackenzie's expertise gives its clients the confidence to define their strategy, identify new opportunities, evaluate the markets they operate in and improve their performance.

    For more information on Wood Mackenzie visit: http://www.woodmac.com

    Media Contact

    Tom Reller
    VP, Global Corporate Relations, Elsevier
    T.Reller@elsevier.com
    +1-215-239-3508

SOURCE Elsevier