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Scientifc publisher incorporates community into its information services

The business of providing information is changing irreparably, as audiences expect to participate in, interact with and repurpose the information they consume.

This is no less true in academic circles. That is why scientific publisher Elsevier has looked to Web 2.0 technologies to help engage and retain its subscribers.

One way in which the company has added to the value of its content is to develop the community information that already exists in the research papers it has published. It has built a database of published researchers that describes their areas of expertise – this is a valuable resource for scientists seeking collaborators, especially across disciplines.

A forthcoming service, which identifies research grants that would be of particular relevance to a given subscriber, will make this information all the more valuable.

2collab is a ‘social bookmarking’ site that allows readers to tag and rate research papers. This not only allows the users to interact with the content itself, but provides Elsevier with valuable insight into how readers perceive the content. “We can start to build that into indexing and search algorithms,” explains Jay Katzen, Elsevier’s managing director for academic and government products.

These tools and services represent a fundamental shift in Elsevier’s role, says Katzen, from publisher to ‘information solution provider’. “In the end we are trying to improve research performance productivity,” Katzen explains, “and enable researchers to connect to each other in new and better ways.”

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