„Elsevier: making the transition from a traditional publisher
to offering online solutions, combining content with innovation“

Die deutsche Fassung des Gesprächs finden Sie hier

Dr. Michiel Kolman, Senior Vice President, Global Academic Relations at Elsevier, during a visit to the B.I.T.-Sofa at the Frankfurt Book Fair, stated his views on the pricing policies of Elsevier and outlined the strategic orientation of services like „Maps of Science“.

In the last 10 years, all information has become available electronically. Access has increased tremendously as a result. Across Europe, 90 % of all institutions have access to ScienceDirect, Elsevier’s online journal database.

Ten years ago (and I was already working at Elsevier then) the average scientist would have access to a limited number of journals or print books, many of which were often unavailable due to the fact that there was only one copy per library. This situation has changed dramatically. All our publications, whether they are current editions or archived material, are available electronically – even the first edition of the Lancet from 1824!

Due to a nation-wide agreement with the DFG, journal archives (or the backfiles) are available throughout Germany. There has been a significant shift in how scientists access scientific information: whether it’s in the form of journals (including archives), ebooks, or databases, such as Reaxys – the recently launched chemistry information source incorporating the prestigious Beilstein Database.

Our current strategic priority at Elsevier is to enable scientists to improve their ability to access, use and produce research. We publish an incredible amount of quality, peer-reviewed research every year, it is our mission to listen to our customers and provide additional solutions to their research needs.

For example, Scopus is extremely popular, with more than 4000 publishers contributing their abstracts and references. Scopus provides a single place where researchers can easily find relevant bibliographic information in one place. We will be doubling our Arts & Humanities content in Scopus which already contains 1600 journals in this field. The interface is highly intuitive and developed with partners in the academic community, including partners in Germany. Scopus also provides visibility of citation rates of research papers, revealing crucial information about the quality of the research.

Another example is 2Collab, a free innovative social media tool. 2Collab enables scientists to bookmark relevant research and make this information available on the internet. This not only enables researchers to share information with peers and colleagues; it provides a space for them to form new connections with fellow researchers across the globe.

In response to that situation, Elsevier has been developing some innovative new solutions. One of these tools is designed to help universities map their core competencies and benchmark themselves among their peers; in other words a „Map of Science”. As a result, universities can make more informed decisions based on their research output areas of development need.

Earlier this year, we talked to 2000 customers, including researchers and librarians, and also department heads, deans, rectors. We asked them how we could support them in making them more effective in running their institute or department. They told us that they need help in performance management, that in order to succeed they must attract the best researchers and that they need an effective method of benchmarking their institution against its peers. They also came back with some basic questions: Am I the top in my area? Am I the top in Germany? Am I the top in Europe? If my institution is number three, who is number one and two? What are the focus areas of my strategy? Where can I allocate funds to the best effect? Can Elsevier help answer some of these questions?

Benchmarking is very important to academic institutions, since they need to formulate clear strategies for future success. This can be done by looking at a university’s research output, not only within Elsevier publications, but all publications and citations; and then comparing this to other institutions in Germany, Europe, and the world. Based on this information which comes from Scopus, we can map where an institution’s strength lies, where they are performing well, and what their key competences are. We can even identify researchers at other institutions they might be interested in hiring in order to succeed even further.

We have built a prototype which we are currently testing world-wide. So far the feedback we have received is extremely positive. Every time I talk to, say, a Dean of Research, the immediate response is: „I want to see my Map!” and „What does my institute look like?”. The data is based on independent bibliographical metrics and concrete numbers, all coming from Scopus. We are really looking forward to launching the product sometime next year.

I do not have the details of individual universities, so it is hard for me to comment on specific cases. What we have seen is that prices did go up quite substantially in the 1990s, which is why from 2000 we changed our pricing policy. Ever since then we have remained in the lowest quartile of all publishers’ price increases, at around 5–6 %. If you look at the increase in the number of articles we publish and the dramatic increase in usage, the investment in our electronic platforms such as ScienceDirect and also the rate of inflation; 5 % is not much at all. I realise that library budgets may not all grow by 5 %, which might lead to some tension. But we offer a very strong quality/price ratio and actually improve our value for money ratio year-on-year, as a consequence we have increasingly become a more trusted partner to the library community.

If you look back to 10 years ago, an average university had access to a limited number of journals and usage was low due to the fact that these journals were mostly in print form. This has changed dramatically: now universities have access to many more journals online, and tools to improve the search for and sharing of, superior research. This has resulted in a huge rise in usage. The price per download has in fact gone down. Ten years ago the average price of a € 15 journal can be compared to just a couple of Euros today; an enormous improvement. This is where we have made great progress.

Talking about pricing, I think we can all be very proud of our achievements, where we worked together and have gained support from the German Government, the DFG, for the journal archives. We have all worked very closely together to make this a success. In the end we have been able to secure access to valuable information for German scientists without directly burdening the library budget. It will make German researchers more competitive which is excellent.

We are always listening to our customers, to ensure that we are serving them in the best possible way. Elsevier publishes quality content, and we are proud of the fact that 25 % of all articles published worldwide are published with Elsevier. We have an amazing collection of top quality journals. We continue to invest in them, continually publishing ground-breaking scientific, technical and medical research.

Simultaneously however, we are developing tools to help scientists to find, use and share science in better and more effective ways. Tools to make scientists’ lives easier. The „Map of Science” tool I described earlier is a great illustration of where we are heading. At the same time we will be making it easier for you to utilize multimedia files, share information, find what you are looking for. We are focused on building services that will enhance the use and interpretation of our content. By creating tools and services that enable our customers to use our content better, we can help make German scientists more efficient and competitive.