Improving global research discoverability and visibility

ScienceDirect opens in new tab/window is the home of Elsevier’s journals, books, and titles from our society partners. Over 19 million researchers per month worldwide use the platform to stay on top of research in their field, find answers to their research questions and gain insights into trending research topics. Best-in-class technology and accessibility standards make it a sustainable, reliable and robust platform for the discovery and dissemination of knowledge.

It has been a little over a year since we announced ScienceDirect would be collaborating with five world-leading publishers in a pilot initiative to enable researchers to search and discover their articles alongside content from Elsevier on the platform.

The American Chemical Society (ACS) opens in new tab/window, the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) opens in new tab/window, Taylor & Francis opens in new tab/window and Wiley opens in new tab/window have made selected Organic Chemistry and Transportation articles discoverable on ScienceDirect. IUCr Journals opens in new tab/window, published by the International Union of Crystallography, joined the initiative in August 2022. More than 100,000 research articles from 38 industry-leading journals from the participating publishers are now included.

Sarah Tegen opens in new tab/window, PhD, Senior Vice President, Journals Publishing Group at ACS Publications, said:

At the American Chemical Society, we are always looking for new ways to support our readers and researchers. This innovative pilot helps to ensure we’re providing additional pathways to propel the global scientific community. We look forward to working with our readers as we continue to make enhancements and explore new opportunities to best meet their needs.

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 pilot.

• 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. The 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.

There is a lot more to do and understand, but we are pleased with the initial results of the pilot. We will carry on conversations with our customers and partners about it and update the wider research community on our progress.

We openly invite other publishers and societies that are interested in joining the pilot in all subject areas, or who simply want to find out more, to get in contact. We are committed to being agile, open and transparent to help academic and government communities advance knowledge for a better world.