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Elsevier
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Celebrating 25 years of discovery

We thank our user community — the librarians, researchers, faculty members and students — for 25 years of support in making ScienceDirect one of the most highly regarded and valued resources in the quest to advance research for the benefit of society. Read on to see how far we all have come…

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ScienceDirect 25 years of Discovery

Where were you in 1999?

While the world prepared for Y2K, science, technology and medicine experienced:

  • Successful mapping of the entire genetic code of a single human chromosome

  • Birth of the six billionth human being

  • 3D mapping of Mars

  • Founding of Alibaba

  • Launch of ScienceDirect

This year, 2024, marks a milestone in ScienceDirect’s distinguished history: the celebration of 25 years of research, scholarship and discovery.

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As the needs of scholars, researchers and librarians, their ecosystems and the technologies they use have changed since its launch, ScienceDirect continues to support their work by:

  • Expanding literature formats beyond journal articles

  • Broadening subject coverage

  • Developing tools that enhance the user experience

  • Updating technologies that simplify access and workflows

  • Embracing reporting standards, accessibility and open access

  • And we are poised to do even more in the months and years ahead.

ScienceDirect website

“The digitization of science has significantly expanded research dissemination, accelerated the discovery and sharing of new knowledge. Over 25 years, ScienceDirect has evolved from a website hosting a few hundred journals to a global platform serving tens of millions of researchers every year. This success and our commitment to strive for excellence and innovation in scholarly publishing is fueled by the trust and usage of ScienceDirect within the research community. Together, we strive to advance science and enhance healthcare outcomes for a better world”

Rose L'Huillier

RL

Rose L'Huillier

Senior Vice President, Researcher Products, Data Science and Analytics, at Elsevier

The evolution

Science Direct 25 years Infographic preview

Guiding principles: user experience, technological innovation and researcher outcomes

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Inspired by the latest and greatest of science

Science has never been more relevant. People around the globe yearn for breakthroughs to move society forward. ScienceDirect facilitates interdisciplinary research and scholarship across peer-reviewed journals and books to inspire research innovation and discovery:

  • 634K newly published articles in 2023, a 3% growth

  • 116 new books added in 2023, a 7% growth

  • Highest cited content of all other publishers (FWCI 1.5) for both open access and subscription content (Source: Scopus)

  • 190K OA articles published in 2023, 23% increase year-on-year

  • 30% of papers published are OA

  • Average of 62 citations per book, compared to the industry average of 21 (Source: Books indexed in Scopus, 2018-2022)

ScienceDirect facts

ScienceDirect is home to trusted, peer-reviewed literature and an integral component in the research community

  • 95% of researchers in the world use ScienceDirect

  • Highest quality share of articles in each FWCI journal tier (Source: Scopus)

  • Top 200 platform ranking on the internet (Source: Ahrefs ranking, 2024)

  • 120M total monthly visits, two times higher than the next competitor

  • 55M unique monthly visitors

  • 80 article views per second

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25 years of positive research outcomes and improving the lives of many

Throughout our 25-year journey, we've amassed a wealth of remarkable and inspiring research stories from our users, each overcoming formidable challenges on their road to success.

Included here are three such stories, as well as links to the related research published on ScienceDirect. All three researchers were honored among the winners of the 2021 OWSD-Elsevier Foundation Award for Early Career Women Scientists in the Developing World.

Finding toxic substances in unusual places

For Prof. Marian Asantewah Nkansah, who specializes in environmental chemistry, circumstances continually remind her that science comes with a price tag. Scientists everywhere face this reality, but for those in developing countries, the situation can be even more palpable. “Toxic substances can be found in unusual places,” she explains. “So, I look in places where many scientists don’t go looking.”

Marian is an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Kumasi, Ghana. There, she teaches Practical Chemistry, Nuclear/Radiochemistry, Chemistry and Society, Petroleum Chemistry, and Research Methods.

Prof. Marian Asantewah Nkansah

Prof. Marian Asantewah Nkansah

How science can help feed the future

Eugénie Kayitesi spent the first seven years of her life moving from one refugee camp to another as she and her parents fled the civil war in Uganda. She experienced first-hand the devastating effects caused by not having enough food.

This experience led her to the path she is on today. Through her research, Eugénie hopes to improve nutrition, diet and food security in Africa and beyond.

Eugénie is an Associate Professor in the Department of Consumer and Food Sciences at the University of Pretoria South Africa. She has published more than 30 peer-reviewed international journal articles and book chapters, received multiple awards and is a World Academy of Science (TWAS) Young Affiliate.

Eugénie Kayitesi

Eugénie Kayitesi

From curious to award-winning

When Dr. Ghada Dushaq was a child, nothing was safe from her prying mind and fingers. If there was a remote control on the coffee table, she would take it apart to figure out how it worked.

In second grade, her curiosity got on her teacher’s nerves.

“She complained to my mom that I was asking too many questions,” Ghada recalled. “‘Why does a banana have no seeds? If you say that our shadow is like a mirror, why don’t we see the exact color? … ‘I don’t know how to answer her.’”

Fortunately, her parents were educators who encouraged her exploration. Today, she continues her exploration as a Postdoctoral Associate in the Photonics Research Lab at NYU Abu Dhabi. Through her research, she is coming up with new and innovative materials for high-speed optical communications.

Dr. Ghada Dushaq

Dr. Ghada Dushaq

Product innovations our users value

Content syndication

Users can access more than 2M articles from other leading publishers directly on ScienceDirect using shared infrastructure with GetFTR, which checks entitlements.

Learn more about our Content Syndication Partnerships.

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Scopus integration

View citation data from Scopus, available on ScienceDirect article pages.

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Reaxys integration

View chemical and structural data from Reaxys on relevant chemistry articles on ScienceDirect, enhancing chemical insights while reading. Entitled users can then link directly to Reaxys for more details in a single click for a seamless user experience on the platform.

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Enhancing with AI

ScienceDirect is innovating with Artificial Intelligence to deliver highly tailored and personalized user experiences. Our goal is to enable users to spend less time searching for information they need so they can spend more time advancing the boundaries of human knowledge. Stay tuned for more information from your Elsevier representative later in 2024.

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