Research Process Enhanced by Critical Mass of Information Available at the Desktop

Amsterdam, 9 October 2003  - Today, Elsevier announced that five million articles are now available on its premier electronic platform, ScienceDirect®. This milestone in electronic scientific, technical and medical (STM) publishing means that researchers around the globe will be able to quickly and efficiently access an unsurpassed critical mass of information at the convenience of their desktop.

Elsevier's extensive and unique full text collection covers over 1800 journals from the core scientific literature including titles such as THE LANCET, Cell and Tetrahedron. With ScienceDirect the research process is enhanced with state-of-the-art searching and linking functionality all on a single, intuitive interface.

The ScienceDirect full-text collection has grown dramatically over the course of the last year. "Less than a year ago there were 3 million articles in the collection," say Arie Jongejan, CEO Science & Technology. "We increased our investments significantly over the last year in bringing more peer reviewed research to our users, which means that they will have unparalleled access to the world's STM literature."

The rapid growth of the ScienceDirect collection is due, in part, to the ongoing addition of the backfiles - heritage collections in a number of disciplines. In 2001 Elsevier embarked on an ambitious project to digitize all of its journals back to volume one, issue one. These historical collections represent part of Elsevier's commitment to ensure that the scientific research community will have functional access to the electronic versions of journal articles.

"We live in an age where research crosses disciplines and borders," says Eefke Smit, Managing Director of ScienceDirect and Bibliographic Databases. "With a collection of full-text articles that is so broad, and so deep, researchers now have the most comprehensive full text collection of peer reviewed articles anywhere in the world, covering an estimated 25% of the world literature on one platform."

The five millionth article loaded onto ScienceDirect is entitled "Amide rotamers of N-acetyl-1,3-dimethyltetrahydroisoquinolines: synthesis, variable temperature NMR spectroscopy and molecular modelling" by Charles B. de Koning, Willem A. L. van Otterlo and Joseph P. Michael of the Molecular Sciences Institute at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa. The article appears in Elsevier's leading organic chemistry journal Tetrahedron, Volume 59, Issue 42, Pages 8337-8345.

In addition to an extensive full-text journal collection, ScienceDirect has increased its offering of other types of full-text content, such as the recently launched reference works program, which is an expanding program of online reference works in all fields of science that seamlessly interlinks with primary research referenced in journals.

About ScienceDirect

Over a quarter of the world's full text scientific, technical and medical (STM) articles - managed by renowned editors, written by respected authors and read by researchers from around the globe - are available in one place: ScienceDirect (www.sciencedirect.com). Elsevier's extensive and unique full text collection covers authoritative titles from the core scientific literature including high impact factor titles such as THE LANCET, Cell and Tetrahedron. Over 5 million articles are available online, including Articles in Press which offer rapid access to recently accepted manuscripts.

The critical mass of information available on ScienceDirect is unsurpassed. Coverage includes over 1,800 journals published by Elsevier and dynamic linking to journals from approximately 170 leading STM publishers through CrossRef. An expanding suite of scientific full text and abstract databases in a rich linking environment provides subscribers with increasingly flexible and extensive access to the world's published STM literature. An expanding program of online major reference works and book series in all fields of science seamlessly interlinks with primary research referenced in journal articles.

About Elsevier

Elsevier (www.elsevier.com) is a world-leading publisher of scientific, technical and medical information products and services. Working in partnership with the global science and health communities, the company publishes more than 1,800 journals and 2,200 new books per year, in addition to offering a suite of innovative electronic products, such as ScienceDirect® (www.sciencedirect.com) and MD Consult (http://www.mdconsult.com/) bibliographic databases, online reference works and subject specific portals.

Elsevier is a global company headquartered in Amsterdam, The Netherlands and has offices worldwide. The company is part of Reed Elsevier Group plc (www.reedelsevier.com), a world-leading publisher and information provider. Operating in the science and medical, legal, education and business-to-business sectors, Reed Elsevier provides high-quality and flexible information solutions to users, with increasing emphasis on the Internet as a means of delivery. Reed Elsevier's ticker symbols are REN (Euronext Amsterdam), REL (London Stock Exchange), RUK and ENL (New York Stock Exchange).

Contacts:

Science Direct

Amanda Spiteri

Marketing & Communications Director

+31 20 485 26 77

c.spiteri@sciencedirect.com

Elsevier

Marike Westra, External Communications Manager

Eric Merkel-Sobotta, Director, Corporate Relations

+31-(0)20-4852736

marike.westra@elsevier.com