Elsevier Introduces SciVerse, an Innovative Platform for Accelerating Science

Integrates ScienceDirect, Scopus and Targeted Web Content;
Offers New Search and Discovery Applications -- -- Opening APIs to Encourage Development of Customized Solutions

Amsterdam - Elsevier, a world-leading publisher of scientific, technical and medical information products and services, today announced the launch of SciVerse, an innovative platform that integrates the company’s key products and encourages the scientific community to collaborate on the development of customized search and discovery applications. Elsevier has committed to releasing the APIs (application programming interfaces) for all of the content on SciVerse and will offer application development support tools on the site.

“SciVerse is a start of a new journey for Elsevier where we plan to provide customized search and discovery solutions and increase interoperability within our products and third party services,” said Jay Katzen, Managing Director, Academic & Government Products, Elsevier. “We recognize that it is critical to involve the researchers and librarians in the creation of solutions as they are in the best position to identify and address their search and discovery challenges. By providing our content APIs later this year, we will empower researchers and developers to build custom applications to enhance their workflow and share these applications with the scientific community within SciVerse.”

A multi-phased initiative aimed at accelerating science through applications targeted to specific researcher needs, at launch SciVerse will include SciVerse Hub beta, a module that integrates ScienceDirect, Scopus and targeted web content from Scirus, Elsevier’s science-specific Internet search engine. SciVerse Hub beta allows for a single search across its integrated content with results ranked by relevancy and without duplication, saving valuable researcher time.

Combining familiar resources with new efficiencies, SciVerse also enables interoperability among ScienceDirect, Scopus and the new SciVerse Hub beta. For example, ScienceDirect users who also subscribe to Scopus will now be able to access key author information without leaving the article, and link directly into comprehensive lists of all an author’s documents and citations in Scopus.

SciVerse Hub beta will include three search and discovery applications at launch:

* Methods section search application – allows researchers to search only the methodology and protocol sections of full-text articles.
* Matching Sentences application – returns search results with the query words highlighted in the full sentence where they appear.
* Prolific Authors application – prominently displays the most prolific authors for each search result.

The initial applications offer an example of the possible solutions that can be built using content APIs and were developed by NextBio, a provider of a SaaS (Software as a Service) platform for life sciences researchers which includes ontology-based semantic tools. Elsevier began collaborating with NextBio in 2009

Elsevier will begin rolling out its APIs on SciVerse in Q4 of this year including content APIs for ScienceDirect, Scopus, and SciVerse Hub beta. In opening up this trusted content to development by the worldwide scientific and developer communities, SciVerse will allow for collaboration on applications that meet specific researcher challenges and enable the creation of customized solutions for efficiently finding, using and re-using SciVerse content.

"As a physician scientist, there is vast amount of information that is available for potential discoveries which has limited my ability to find and consume the right information in the time I have available for research,” said Dr. Fatima Cody Stanford, Palmetto Health/ University of South Carolina School of Medicine. “Applications that provide more intelligent results will significantly improve my workflow. I am very excited about the first SciVerse applications and eager to see new additions as the larger community begins development.”

For more information about SciVerse, please visit http://www.info.sciverse.com.

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About Elsevier
Elsevier is a world-leading publisher of scientific, technical and medical information products and services. The company works in partnership with the global science and health communities to publish more than 2,000 journals, including The Lancet and Cell, and close to 20,000 book titles, including major reference works from Mosby and Saunders. Elsevier’s online solutions include ScienceDirect, Scopus, Reaxys, MD Consult and Nursing Consult, which enhance the productivity of science and health professionals, and the SciVal suite and MEDai’s Pinpoint Review, which help research and health care institutions deliver better outcomes more cost-effectively.

A global business headquartered in Amsterdam, Elsevier employs 7,000 people worldwide. The company is part of Reed Elsevier Group PLC, a world-leading publisher and information provider, which is jointly owned by Reed Elsevier PLC and Reed Elsevier NV. The ticker symbols are REN (Euronext Amsterdam), REL (London Stock Exchange), RUK and ENL (New York Stock Exchange).