Clarivate Analytics

Clarivate Analytics
Lauralaura612 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Name	Clarivate
Type	Public
Industry	Information services
Founded	2016
Predecessor	Intellectual Property and Science business of Thomson Reuters
Headquarters	London, United Kingdom
Area served	Global
Key people	Jerre Stead, Jonathan Gear
Products	Web of Science, Derwent, Cortellis, EndNote, ScholarOne
Revenue	(2023)
Num employees	(2023)

Clarivate Analytics Clarivate Analytics is a global information services company specializing in scientometrics, intellectual property, and research analytics. It provides databases, workflow tools, and analytics used by universities, corporations, law firms, government agencies, and publishers. The company traces roots to legacy brands such as Derwent, Web of Science, and Thomson Scientific, and operates across major research and innovation hubs.

History

Clarivate Analytics was formed in 2016 following the acquisition of the Intellectual Property and Science business from Thomson Reuters by an investor consortium. The antecedent businesses include organizations with long histories: Institute for Scientific Information, Derwent Innovation, and ISI Web of Knowledge emerged from earlier entities like Institute for Scientific Information founder Eugene Garfield's initiatives and the Philadelphia bibliometric community. Post-2016 developments involved an initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange and a rebranding to Clarivate as the firm expanded through acquisition and product integration. Leadership changes and strategic shifts reflect interactions with stakeholders such as institutional subscribers in Ivy League universities, corporate R&D centers in Silicon Valley, and government research organizations in Washington, D.C. and Brussels.

Products and Services

The company's flagship research platform aggregates citation indices, patent databases, and workflow tools used across scholarly communication and intellectual property management. Notable offerings integrate legacy services including Web of Science citation indexes, Derwent World Patents Index patent data, and bibliographic management via EndNote. Clinical and pharmaceutical intelligence is provided through offerings such as Cortellis, which serves clients in Pfizer, Roche, and other major life sciences firms. Manuscript submission and peer review workflows are supported by ScholarOne, used by publishers including Wiley, Springer Nature, and Elsevier. The firm also supplies analytics and market intelligence to corporate innovation teams at companies like IBM, Microsoft, and Samsung, and legal practitioners at firms including Baker McKenzie and DLA Piper.

Major Acquisitions and Mergers

After the 2016 carve-out from Thomson Reuters, the company pursued an acquisition-led growth strategy. Important transactions include purchases of specialist providers and databases that extended coverage into patents, pharmaceutical intelligence, and research workflow—bringing together assets that formerly competed or complemented offerings from Clarivate’s peers. Targets and partners have intersected with organizations such as ProQuest-owned archives, academic publishers like SAGE Publications, and analytics firms operating in Boston and London. Strategic mergers and asset purchases often aimed to consolidate bibliometric tools used by national research assessment exercises like those run in United Kingdom and Australia.

Business Model and Financials

The firm generates revenue through subscription licensing, transactional access, custom analytics projects, and professional services. Institutional subscriptions from universities, corporate R&D departments, patent law firms, and pharmaceutical companies underpin recurring revenue, while one-time fees arise from database licensing and bespoke consulting engagements for clients in Fortune 500 lists. Financial performance is influenced by renewal rates with major customers such as Harvard University, University of Cambridge, and multinational corporations headquartered in New York City and Tokyo. Public financial disclosures to investors on exchanges such as the New York Stock Exchange and interactions with shareholder groups, including activist investors and large asset managers, shape capital allocation and dividend policy.

Research Metrics and Controversies

The company’s bibliometric indicators and patent analytics have been central to debates in scholarly publishing, research evaluation, and intellectual property policy. Its citation-based metrics figure in university rankings and national research assessments alongside tools developed by organizations like Elsevier and Google Scholar. Critics and advocates reference tensions involving coverage biases, aggregation practices, and pricing models when comparing datasets with sources such as Scopus, PubMed, and national repositories. High-profile controversies have addressed licensing negotiations with major publishers including The Lancet and Nature Publishing Group, customer pushback from consortia in Europe and North America, and academic debates invoking figures like Tim Berners-Lee and institutions such as MIT about openness, reproducibility, and data accessibility.

Global Operations and Organization

Operations span research and commercial centers in regions including North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. The corporate structure comprises regional business units serving customers in markets like China, India, Germany, and Brazil, with product development teams collaborating across sites in Philadelphia, London, and Singapore. Partnerships and customer relationships connect the firm to academic consortia, national patent offices such as the United States Patent and Trademark Office and European Patent Office, and multinational corporations. Governance involves a board of directors, senior executives, and advisory panels that include stakeholders from academia, law, and industry with ties to institutions like Stanford University and University of Oxford.

Category:Information companies