ELSEVIER

We all have an important role to play in the STM community: scientists, researchers, authors, editors, doctors, nurses and allied health practitioners, librarians and publishers.

While relationships and traditions evolve, our shared goal remains constant. As one community, we serve society through the advancement of scientific and medical research and practice.

Publishers have a key role. We ensure the integrity of content and nurture new paths of exploration, extend access to vital information and preserve knowledge for generations to come. For Elsevier, linking researchers and practitioners with the sophisticated resources and information they need is both our core business mission and a profound responsibility.

Scientists advancing science
Scientific and health information is surging, with an unprecedented growth in research. Each year, millions of researchers around the globe rely on 16,000 learned journals, containing 1.2 million peer-reviewed articles across the sciences.

Scientists rely on these reputable journals to aggregate, filter and validate author submissions independent of any outside influence or interested third party. At Elsevier, independent editors and editorial boards decide whether or not to publish an author's work based upon its quality, novelty and relevance for the publication. And, as scientific research steadily grows, new fields of inquiry and exploration develop. The creation of new STM journals has helped to nurture these emerging disciplines.

STM publishers have underwritten new journals in new fields to provide scientists and researchers with a forum to establish the field's identity, focus and validity. Elsevier has launched new journals every year for more than five decades. Many have helped to define new disciplines and subdisciplines.

Sharing the world's STM information
Scientists read twice as many articles as they did 10 years ago. There is greater access to and more efficient usage of scientific information than ever before. STM publishers have collaborated on industry standards and invested substantially in new technologies to allow scientists and practitioners the ease and ability to access, cross-reference, organise and share the world's STM information, anytime, anywhere. Elsevier has invested more than $280 million over the last three years, to digitise the content of all its journals, develop new products and enhance functionality.

As a result, more than 16 million scientists worldwide access, via ScienceDirect, over six million articles, 80 million abstracts, 1,800 Elsevier journals and have free linking to the content of more than 300 other STM publishers via CrossRef. Past, present and future scholars are now seamlessly connected to vital information.

The 'minutes of science' for past, present and future
Elsevier is committed to ensuring that scientists and researchers have enduring access to the scientific scholarship we publish. Our journal programmes record the 'minutes of science,' and we recognise our responsibilities as the keeper of those 'minutes' in our policies regarding copyright, archiving and the historic record of the transactions of scholarship.

In 2002, Elsevier and the National Library of the Netherlands (Koninklijke Bibliotheek) reached a groundbreaking agreement in electronic archiving.

The Library is now the first official digital archive of all Elsevier journals, providing permanent access to critical scientific and medical research.

One community, one calling
For more than a century, Elsevier has been dedicated to fuelling a continuous cycle of exploration and discovery and to accelerating the transformation of ideas into actions. The STM community is a network that fosters the creation of knowledge, links cultures and peoples, brings understanding and hope. At Elsevier, we believe that getting the right information into the right hands can make a difference.

Bridging the information divide

Initiatives from publishers of science, technology and medicine are making sustainable progress toward bridging the information divide around the globe.

• HINARI (Health InterNetwork Access to Research Initiative)
  A UN initiative, HINARI provides online access to the major journals of the biomedical and related social sciences for public institutions in developing countries. Elsevier is proud to be one of the founding health publishers of this project, which is led by the WHO.
• AGORA (Access to Global Online Research in Agriculture)
  Inspired by the success of HINARI, the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation's AGORA project provides access to high quality, relevant information in agriculture and related fields to developing countries. Elsevier is one of the founding publishers of this initiative, which will impact researchers, policy makers, educators, technical workers and extension specialists.
• The Elsevier Foundation
  Founded in 2002, The Elsevier Foundation is dedicated to advancing vital research and scholarly thinking and to improving education worldwide. To date, more than 20 grants have been awarded to libraries, nonprofit organisations, educational institutions and community programmes across four continents.

contact details

Eric Merkel-Sobotta, Elsevier
Tel: +31 20 485 29 94
Fax: +31 20 485 28 43
Email: e.merkelsobotta@elsevier.com
Web: www.elsevier.com