Research

University Libraries renews access to ScienceDirect for research benefit

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn State University Libraries has renewed Penn State library users’ access to the ScienceDirect database of scholarly journals and e-books through 2026. ScienceDirect, which is published by Elsevier, includes millions of research articles and chapters, plus thousands of academic journals and e-books on topics in the physical sciences and engineering, life sciences, health sciences, and social sciences and humanities. 

The University Libraries team negotiated an agreement that removed subscriptions of rarely accessed titles while also retaining and expanding an array of journals necessary for Penn State research. Penn State subject and liaison faculty librarians and staff contributed to the discussion by reviewing usage data and obtaining input from University instructional faculty and researchers. This approach helped the Libraries team to contain costs over the term of the ScienceDirect renewal agreement. 

“Our latest agreement with Elsevier provides a more cost-effective, yet robust, resource-rich subscription to ScienceDirect content of most benefit to University researchers, from students to senior faculty,” Mihoko Hosoi, associate dean for collections, research and scholarly communications in University Libraries, said.  

“Our negotiating team sought input from a wide variety of Penn State faculty and Libraries content experts to ensure that we continued to uphold Penn State’s strategic priorities of maintaining both affordability of and access to a vast array of research content,” Kelly Thormodson, associate dean for library and information services and director of the Harrell Health Sciences Library in Penn State College of Medicine, said. 

Hosoi and Thormodson led the negotiation and worked closely with Ana Enriquez, scholarly communications outreach librarian, Brandy Karl, head of the Office of Scholarly Communications and Copyright, and Julia Proctor, head of the University Libraries’ Acquisitions Services.  

The Libraries team also received input and support from Dean of University Libraries and Scholarly Communications Faye A. Chadwell as well as Penn State’s University Faculty Senate Committee on Libraries, Information Systems and Technology and the University Research Council. 

Elsevier is a Netherlands-based publishing company specializing in scientific, technical and medical content. 

Last Updated January 6, 2022