Elsevier signs formal declaration of compliance
Edinburgh, 24 October 2003 - Elsevier, a multiple media publisher of scientific, technical and medical information, has signed a declaration of compliance of the usage reports of its product 
ScienceDirect®, with the international COUNTER Code of Practice (Release 1) which governs the recording and exchange of online usage data and primarily focuses on journals and databases. The COUNTER Code of Practice is supported by a global organization of librarians, publishers and their professional organizations, and promotes credible, consistent, and compatible measurement of the usage data from online information resources around the globe.
Eefke Smit, member of the COUNTER Board of Directors and Managing Director ScienceDirect® and Bibliographic Databases at Elsevier said: “Participation in COUNTER and particularly, compliance with its Release 1 Code of Practice, will help us to further meet and understand librarian information needs. COUNTER facilitates providing librarians usage data in a way that is most meaningful to them while providing us usage data we can use to continually improve our products. What this comes down to is better customer service and we are thrilled about it. ’’
Peter Shepherd, COUNTER Project Director, said “We are delighted that Elsevier is now providing usage reports that comply with the Code of Practice. The company has been a founding member of the COUNTER initiative launched in 2002. The number of full text journals for which usage reports are compliant will now increase strongly. These reports are a further indication of Elsevier’s commitment to improving industry standards for online usage data. Librarians will welcome this news.’
About COUNTER
COUNTER (counting Online Usage of Networked Electronic Resources) is a multi-agency, not-for-profit organization whose objective is to develop and maintain a single, internationally accepted, extendible Code of Practice that allows the usage of online information products and services to be measured more consistently.
The definitive Register of COUNTER-compliant vendors is available on the
COUNTER website. Only vendors and usage reports included on this list should be regarded as being COUNTER compliant.
About Elsevier
Elsevier 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® and
MD Consult 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 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).
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 . 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.
Contacts:
Elsevier:
Marthyn Borghuis, ScienceDirect
m.borghuis@elsevier.com
COUNTER:
Peter Shepherd, COUNTER Project Director
p.shepherd@projectCounter.org
Note to Editors: There is a freely accessible demo version of the Elsevier Customer Usage Reporting site available at:
http://usagereports.elsevier.com
username: demo password : demo
