There have been dramatic improvements in electronic dissemination and availability of STM information in the last decade. Elsevier led the transition to online in STM publishing with our journal platform ScienceDirect. Launched in 1997, ScienceDirect is now available to 10 million users worldwide, and as of November 2006 has had over 1 billion full-text articles downloaded. 

This electronic distribution and the development of new online tools has spurred significant increases in researchers’ usage and productivity and today’s scientists read around 50% more articles per year than 25 years ago, and read from almost twice as many journals. 

Driven by the needs of the research and clinical communities we serve, Elsevier has led in the transition to online in STM publishing and has developed award-winning products that deliver significant improvements in research productivity.

Scopus covers the world’s research literature. It was designed and developed with over 300 users and librarians internationally. This breakthrough new product saves time and increases productivity for users, and helps librarians maximize their investments in full-text resources. Its unique database contains abstracts and references from over 15,000 titles from 4,000 different publishers. Scopus won the International Information Industry Award for best Scientific, Technical and Medical (STM) Information Product in December 2005.
http://www.scopus.com


ScienceDirect is a journals database which provides access to over 7 million articles, 60 million abstracts, more than 2000 Elsevier and third party journals and free linking to non-Elsevier content from hundreds of other STM publishers via CrossRef™.

ScienceDirect offers researchers remote, desktop access, fast search, interlinked articles and eFunctions such as e-mail alerts. For librarians it offers easier collection management, usage data per journal, reduced storage space and staff efficiencies

Continuously focusing on the future ScienceDirect is now looking at developing novel ways to use technology to best meet the information needs of global as well as individual research communities. For example, integration of chemical structures, video clips, and the possibility of including data sets are currently being introduced.
http://www.sciencedirect.com

Scirus is one of the most comprehensive science-focused search engine available on the Internet and provides free support to all researchers, clinicians, and students worldwide. It offers users a unique combination of free Web information and journal content, clearly branding search results from proprietary sources, assuring users the validity of content. It reaches over 1 million researchers and students worldwide executing 4 million searches per month.
http://www.scirus.com

Elsevier honours its responsibilities to disseminate and preserve STM literature to meet the information needs of the world’s present and future scientists, scholars and clinicians – linking thinkers with ideas.

Journal distribution to scientists and researchers has never been better with Elsevier’s journals available in print and electronic formats to 20 million readers in some 200 countries. Worldwide usage of our electronic articles on ScienceDirect has grown six-fold in the last four years and the number of ScienceDirect regular active users has grown tenfold.

Access in developing countries has also increased dramatically, and at little or no cost, through initiatives such as HINARI and AGORA, both UN-based initiatives providing free or low cost access to health, agriculture and related information in developing countries.

In 1999 Elsevier committed itself to not exceeding a single digit percentage price rise for our core journal collection in our invoicing currencies. This has been honoured in every subsequent year to the present time when growth in the number of articles delivered has been running at 3-4% each and every year.

Today Elsevier offers moderate price increases for increasing content.  For the fifth consecutive year, our average price increase for our journal collection remains within the lowest quartile of average price increases across all STM publishers and has contributed to a year-on-year decline in the overall average price rises in the industry. 

Elsevier works with libraries to develop flexible purchasing options and institutional subscription options and collection prices are designed to offer choice and flexibility to institutes of varying sizes and needs. Substantial collection discounts are offered to institutes to extend access to more titles. Electronic package prices are usually individually negotiated and offer significant discounts over list prices.

Today, our customers’average cost per article download is a quarter of what it was 5 years ago while users enjoy many more features and functionalities. The average cost per article downloaded on ScienceDirect has plunged since 2000 and is now below $1 for large customers.