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Press release

Improving global research discoverability and visibility through ScienceDirect

Amsterdam | May 24, 2023

New report highlights how world-leading academic publishers and ScienceDirect are collaborating to help researchers find and access research more easily

ScienceDirect opens in new tab/window, the Elsevier platform that is a leading source of scientific, technical, and medical research, has today published its ‘Expanded reach on a trusted platform’  report. The report is free to download and explores the initial results of ScienceDirect’s pilot initiative that enables researchers to search and discover articles from five publishing partners alongside content from Elsevier journals.

Since January 2022, American Chemical Society (ACS) opens in new tab/windowthe Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) opens in new tab/windowTaylor & Francis opens in new tab/window, and Wiley opens in new tab/window have made selected Organic Chemistry and Transportation research articles discoverable on ScienceDirect alongside Elsevier content. IUCr Journals opens in new tab/window, published by the International Union of Crystallography, joined the initiative in August 2022.

The report includes data on how research included in the pilot has been discovered and consumed, and insights from authors, readers, and librarians on how they perceive the collaboration. Key highlights include:

  • 90% of ScienceDirect users think the pilot is a good idea.

  • 73% of authors are either positive or very positive about their articles being shared in this way (20% are neutral).

  • Individual journals included in the pilot saw increases of up to 18.8% in total reach for their research included in the initiative.

  • Content in the pilot was more discoverable across a broader and more diverse geographic distribution: Pilot content saw 5% more visits from countries outside of North America and Europe (72%) in comparison to Elsevier organic chemistry content (67%).

The pilot will continue and be expanded beyond its initial scope of Organic Chemistry and Transportation content to cover additional research topics. American Society for Microbiology (ASM) opens in new tab/window and Brill opens in new tab/window will join the pilot and their research will be included on ScienceDirect in Spring/ Summer 2023, content from 36 journals will be added from both publishers.

Rose L’Huillier, SVP for Researcher Products at Elsevier, said: “While the pilot is still very new, we have produced this report as part of our commitment to keeping the research community updated on our progress. There is a lot more to do and understand, but we are pleased with the initial results. I’m delighted that ASM and Brill have chosen to take part, and we look forward to collaborating with them and our existing partners on how we can further improve global research discoverability and visibility for authors and help save readers’ time.”

During the pilot, researchers have been able to discover more than 100,000 articles from 38 industry-leading journals from the participating publishers, through search, recommendations, and browsing content. If an article is Open Access, the full text is available immediately in HTML. For all Open Access content and subscription content to which the user is entitled, researchers see a PDF button on ScienceDirect that indicates they have full-text access, which takes them to the PDF hosted on the publisher’s website. Entitled access is determined using GetFTR opens in new tab/window, a free-to-use solution for platforms like ScienceDirect that enables real-time entitlement checks for any article. More detail is available about the pilot here opens in new tab/window.

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About Elsevier

As a global leader in scientific information and analytics, Elsevier helps researchers and healthcare professionals advance science and improve health outcomes for the benefit of society. We do this by facilitating insights and critical decision-making with innovative solutions based on trusted, evidence-based content and advanced AI-enabled digital technologies.

We have supported the work of our research and healthcare communities for more than 140 years. Our 9,500 employees around the world, including 2,500 technologists, are dedicated to supporting researchers, librarians, academic leaders, funders, governments, R&D-intensive companies, doctors, nurses, future healthcare professionals and educators in their critical work. Our 2,900 scientific journals and iconic reference books include the foremost titles in their fields, including Cell Press, The Lancet and Gray’s Anatomy.

Together with the Elsevier Foundation opens in new tab/window, we work in partnership with the communities we serve to advance inclusion and diversity in science, research and healthcare in developing countries and around the world.

Elsevier is part of RELX opens in new tab/window, a global provider of information-based analytics and decision tools for professional and business customers. For more information on our work, digital solutions and content, visit www.elsevier.com.

Contact

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David Tucker

Research Communications Director

Elsevier

E-mail David Tucker