Deal brings scientific and medical information to researchers in Portugal via ScienceDirect

Lisbon/Amsterdam  - 4 March 2004: Elsevier has announced that it has signed an agreement with the Knowledge and Information Society Mission Unit (UMIC) and the Foundation for National Scientific Computing (FCCN) for access to Elsevier content via its ScienceDirect® electronic platform.  The agreement represents the beginning of further cooperation.

The agreement provides over 350,000 undergraduates, graduates, researchers, faculty and staff at 47 research and academic institutions in Portugal with access to the UMIC/FCCN list of subscribed titles.

The agreement relating to the subscribed titles list provides researchers in Portugal with access to approximately 2.5 million full-text articles and 15 million abstracts since 1995.  Furthermore, the agreement contains the standard Elsevier “walk-up” provision, which permits all Portuguese citizens coming to the 47 institutions for scientific and medical information, free access to content covered under the agreement.

“The Digital Scientific Library is probably one of the most complex projects that we manage, but also the one that gives much pleasure.  The fact that this agreement gives Portuguese students, teachers and researchers the ability to have the information they need at their fingertips was the principle that lead us to this project,” said Diogo Vasconcelos, the General Manager and President of UMIC.  “Although these types of agreements can be very complex, we managed to do it in the record time of two months.  The commitment and cooperation on both sides was the crucial element of this success story.  Elsevier understood our needs and always tried to find a suitable solution for our challenges,” said José Fernandes from UMIC/FCCN.

“This agreement provides access for researchers to the critical scientific content.  The conclusion of the agreement now allows both sides to focus their energies on new areas for cooperation.  We would like to thank the UMIC/FCCN negotiating team for their efforts,” said Frank Vrancken Peeters, Managing Director for Sales, Science & Technology, Elsevier.

Contact:

Eric Merkel-Sobotta
+31 20 485 29 94
e.merkelsobotta@elsevier.com

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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® (www.sciencedirect.com) and   MD Consult (http://www.mdconsult.com/) bibliographic databases, online reference works and subject specific portals.

Elsevier (www.elsevier.com) 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).

About UMIC/FCCN

UMIC (Unidade de Missão Inovação e Conhecimento/Knowledge and Information Society Mission Unit) reports directly to the Deputy Prime Minister on the Portuguese government’s Council of Ministers and is responsible for developing a sustainable strategy for the development of the Information Society in Portugal.  Further information can be found at:    http://www.umic.gov.pt/or   http://www.infosociety.gov.pt/

FCCN (Fundação para a Computação Científica Nacional/Foundation for National Scientific Computing) is a private non-profit organisation.  It began its activities in January 1987 and plays a significant role in expanding the use of the Internet in Portugal, in partnership with universities and various national R&D institutions.  The main activity of FCCN concerns the planning, managing and operating of the RCTS (Rede Ciência, Tecnologia e Sociedade/Science, Technology and Society Network), which is a high-performance network for those institutions with the most need for communications, and which is thus an experimentation platform for advanced communications software and services.  In addition to managing the RCTS, FCCN is also the registry for the .pt top level domain. Further information can be found at:    http://www.fccn.pt/