Elsevier Launches new Article of the Future Prototypes

AMSTERDAM, June 9, 2011 -

- Discipline-specific, Three-pane Article Design in Line With the Needs
of the Research Community

Elsevier, a world-leading provider of
scientific, technical and medical information products and services,
announced today the launch of a variety of new Article of the Future
prototypes. The new discipline-specific, three-pane article design sets a new
standard for both the presentation and the content of the scientific article.
The prototypes, available in seven disciplines, are based on feedback from
researchers with whom Elsevier cooperated throughout the development of the
Article of the Future format. The improved format will begin to be applied to
SciVerse ScienceDirect towards the end of 2011.

An earlier version of the Article of the Future format was introduced for
Cell Press journals in 2009. The format was highly appreciated by the users,
leading to the 2010 PROSE Award for Excellence in Biological & Life Sciences.
In order to further improve the format beyond Biological and Life Sciences,
Elsevier partnered with 150 researchers in a variety of disciplines to get
insight into their information needs and preferences. Based on their
feedback, three guiding principles for the new design emerged: readability,
discoverability and extensibility - a layout that accommodates
discipline-specific content and features as well as future changes and
additions, while considerably improving online readability.

"Based on the feedback that we've received from users during the test
phase, I'm delighted to be able to say the new format is an enormous
improvement," said IJsbrand Jan Aalbersberg, Vice President Content
Innovation. "The redesigned article page has three panes side by side, and
what is contained in each pane will differ depending on the subject matter.
The middle pane integrates the full text with new and interactive content,
the left one displays a table of contents for easy navigation, and the right
pane contains more applications and discipline-specific tools. This design
allows authors to add their own discipline-specific and rich content such as
interactive plots, chemical compounds, or interactive maps. And while adding
new valuable content elements, we also wanted the articles' readability to be
perfect, all in a format that is very intuitive to researchers."

Professor Mike Stephenson of the British Geological Survey and Editor in
Chief of the journal Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology was closely
involved in the development process of the new format. He said: "The Article
of the Future format contains all that's normally found in a published
article of today, but with immensely more content, functionality,
interactivity and appeal. Furthermore, an article can be used as the centre
of a 'web' of other connections that a researcher can follow. This concept of
easy and well connected links, combined with improved content, readability
and navigation, truly enhances the reader experience."

The improved Article of the Future format is one of several enhancements
Elsevier is introducing to SciVerse ScienceDirect. APIs have been released to
allow for applications to be built using ScienceDirect content among other
products within the SciVerse suite, and considerable developments have been
made to search and discovery functionalities across article content. All of
these enhancements are made to enhance the research workflow, with the
Article of the Future project specifically focusing on improving the content
and presentation of the individual article.

More information about the prototypes is available on
www.articleofthefuture.com

About SciVerse ScienceDirect

SciVerse ScienceDirect (www.sciencedirect.com/) contains over a
quarter of the world's full text scientific, technical and medical (STM)
peer-reviewed articles - managed by renown editors, written by respected
authors and read by researchers from around the globe. Elsevier's extensive
full-text collection covers authoritative titles from the core scientific
literature with more than ten million articles available online. Coverage
includes over 2,500 journal titles published by Elsevier with dynamic linking
to journals from approximately 2,000 STM publishers through CrossRef.
Additionally, SciVerse ScienceDirect contains an expanding library of online
major reference works, handbooks, book series and over 10,000 eBooks in all
fields of science seamlessly interlinked with primary research referenced in
journal articles. SciVerse ScienceDirect is part of the SciVerse suite of
search and discovery offerings.

About Elsevier

Elsevier is a world-leading publisher of scientific, technical and
medical information products and services. The company works in partnership
with the global science and health communities to publish more than 2,000
journals, including The Lancet (www.thelancet.com/)and Cell (
www.cell.com/), and close to 20,000 book titles, including major
reference works from Mosby and Saunders. Elsevier's online solutions include
SciVerse ScienceDirect (www.sciencedirect.com/), SciVerse Scopus
(www.scopus.com/), Reaxys (www.reaxys.com/), MD Consult
(www.mdconsult.com/) and Nursing Consult (
www.nursingconsult.com/ ), which enhance the productivity of science
and health professionals, and the SciVal suite (www.scival.com/) and
MEDai's Pinpoint Review (www.medai.com/), which help research and
health care institutions deliver better outcomes more cost-effectively.

A global business headquartered in Amsterdam, Elsevier (
www.elsevier.com/)employs 7,000 people worldwide. The company is part
of Reed Elsevier Group PLC (www.reedelsevier.com/), a world-leading
publisher and information provider, which is jointly owned by Reed Elsevier
PLC and Reed Elsevier NV. The ticker symbols are REN (Euronext Amsterdam),
REL (London Stock Exchange), RUK and ENL (New York Stock Exchange).

    Media contact
    Harald Boersma
    Senior Manager, Corporate Relations, Elsevier
    H.Boersma@elsevier.com
    +31-20-485-27-36

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