Elsevier Launches ScienceDirect Topics to Help Researchers Quickly Build Their Knowledge and Save Valuable Time Searching

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Sep 13, 2017, 08:06 ET

AMSTERDAM, September 13, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

Elsevier, the information analytics business specializing in science and health, today announces the launch of ScienceDirect Topics; a free layer of content which provides a quick snapshot of definitions, terms and excerpts on scientific topics, built on Elsevier's highly trusted book content.

Research is becoming increasingly multi-disciplinary, requiring researchers and scientists to quickly come up to speed on topics outside their core scientific discipline. The time it takes to get up to speed on an ever expanding corpus of scientific topics impacts their productivity and workflow. ScienceDirect, Elsevier's leading platform of peer-reviewed scholarly literature, has created these innovative new Topics pages and made it available for free to address these needs.

Researchers and scientists can access these pages directly from hyperlinked key terms in journal articles, or via searching on the site, to learn quickly about a topic without disrupting their research workflow. Science Direct Topics help researchers to quickly build their understanding of a scientific topic, learn and interpret scientific concepts and enhance their knowledge base across multiple disciplines quickly and efficiently, thereby improving their productivity.

"Information from Elsevier's books in ScienceDirect is now available through Topics pages which provides excerpts from Elsevier's citable and trustworthy book content, when researchers need it most and need to come up to speed on a particular topic quickly," said Sumita Singh, Managing Director, Elsevier Reference Solutions. "Previously, researchers would have had to leave the site, open up a search engine and spend time trying to find the right and trusted information. Not anymore. Our new technology enables researchers to access these foundational references and knowledge quickly, easily and at the point of need."

ScienceDirect Topics will provide researchers with:

Quick Definitions - a short definition to explain a particular scientific topic or term.
Related Terms - for those that want to explore interdisciplinary areas further.
Relevant Excerpts - comprehensive overviews on a topic, users can then explore further and decide to read relevant chapters in Elsevier books.

Laura Hassink, SVP Product Management ScienceDirect, said, "ScienceDirect Topics enhances user experience, as it integrates books and journals content seamlessly through machine reading. By adding this free layer of content which is discoverable via the site and search engines, we increase comprehension and interpretation of journal content while at the same time increasing the discoverability of thousands of relevant books."

ScienceDirect Topics indexes 80,000 pages on Life Sciences, Biomedical Sciences and Neuroscience on search engines. This provides researchers, students and anyone interested in specific scientific topics with a free layer of information.

About Elsevier

Elsevier is a global information analytics business that helps institutions and professionals progress science, advance healthcare and improve performance for the benefit of humanity. Elsevier provides digital solutions and tools in the areas of strategic research management, R&D performance, clinical decision support, and professional education; including ScienceDirect, Scopus, ClinicalKey and Sherpath. Elsevier publishes over 2,500 digitized journals, including The Lancet and Cell, more than 35,000 e-book titles and many iconic reference works, including Gray's Anatomy. Elsevier is part of RELX Group, a global provider of information and analytics for professionals and business customers across industries. www.elsevier.com