Thomson Reuters has announced the release of the Data Citation Index. The index will be hosted on the Web of Knowledge platform, and will become available in late 2012.

The Data Citation Index will incorporate content from datasets deposited in repositories around the world, and will cover the social sciences, physical sciences, life sciences, arts and humanities. The Index will capture bibliographic records and cited references, which will facilitate the measurement of impact in digital research.

In addition, Thomson Reuters believe the Index will provide 'a more comprehensive view of scholarly output' and 'speed up the research process'.

The news announcement includes a selection essay, which outlines their selection process for repositories, as well as metadata and standards.