Elsevier
A global scientific, technical, medical and research-information company within RELX.
Last updated November 3, 2026
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Overview
Elsevier is a global scientific, technical and medical information company headquartered in Amsterdam and operating as a major business of RELX. Its origins date to 1880, although the modern company adopted the Elsevier name and the printer's mark associated with the historic Elzevir publishing family without being a direct continuation of that earlier business. The company developed from a Dutch publishing operation into one of the largest commercial suppliers of scholarly journals, research books, medical references and digital information services. Elsevier's publishing portfolio spans health sciences, life sciences, physical sciences, engineering, social sciences and related professional fields. Its journals include The Lancet, Cell, Trends titles and the Current Opinion series. Its book and reference portfolio has included works such as Gray's Anatomy, Nelson Textbook of Pediatrics, Dorland's Illustrated Medical Dictionary and Netter's Atlas of Human Anatomy. The company serves universities, libraries, governments, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, research laboratories, clinicians, students, authors and editors. Digital products have become central to the brand. ScienceDirect provides online access to Elsevier journals, books, reference works and handbooks. Scopus is a multidisciplinary abstract and citation database used for literature discovery and research assessment. SciVal supports institutional research-performance analysis, while ClinicalKey and ClinicalPath provide clinical information and evidence-oriented decision support. Other products and acquisitions have extended Elsevier into research data, workflow management, repository services, researcher profiles, analytics and scholarly communication, including Mendeley, SSRN, Digital Commons, Pure, PlumX and Interfolio. The company increasingly describes itself as an information analytics business with publishing roots rather than solely as a traditional publisher. Its business model combines subscription content, open-access publishing, database access, software, analytics and professional information services. Elsevier publishes in multiple languages and reaches users through institutional agreements, individual subscriptions, licensing, print, electronic delivery and open-access arrangements. RELX has reported that Elsevier publishes hundreds of thousands of articles each year across more than 2,800 journals, although exact totals vary by year and reporting methodology. Elsevier has been influential in the development of electronic scholarly communication. It participated in early network-delivery experiments, helped establish the foundations of online journal distribution and launched ScienceDirect in 1997. The company later expanded into citation analysis, research evaluation and clinical workflow tools. Acquisitions such as Mendeley and SSRN strengthened its connection to researchers and pre-publication scholarship, while also intensifying debate about the concentration of scholarly infrastructure in commercial companies. The brand has faced sustained criticism over journal prices, bundled subscriptions, restrictive licensing and its treatment of publicly funded research. Universities and academics have organized boycotts, cancellation threats and open-access negotiations. Critics argue that high prices and confidential agreements can limit access and allow commercial publishers to capture substantial value from research supported by public funds, while Elsevier has defended the costs associated with editorial management, peer review, hosting, preservation, discovery and analytics. The company has also drawn criticism over text and data-mining restrictions, editorial practices, acquisitions of open-science tools and a 2009 marketing email encouraging favorable book reviews. Despite these controversies, Elsevier remains a central provider of scholarly content, bibliographic data, clinical information and research analytics.
History
Elsevier was founded in 1880 in the Netherlands and used a name and emblem inspired by the earlier Elzevir family of booksellers and printers. The modern company was not a continuation of the Elzevir business, but adopted its tree-and-vine printer's mark and the motto Non Solus. The business's later expansion into science was supported in part by the success of the Elsevier weekly magazine, launched in 1945 after the wartime interruption of an earlier periodical. International expansion began before and during the Second World War. An office was established in London in 1939 to distribute titles across much of the British Commonwealth, and a New York office followed. In 1947 Elsevier began publishing its first English-language journal, Biochimica et Biophysica Acta, helping establish the international scientific publishing direction that would define the company. The company expanded through acquisitions and technological experimentation. It acquired North-Holland Publishing in 1970 and the medical abstract publisher Excerpta Medica in 1971. Elsevier also explored computer-assisted journal production and, in 1978, merged with the Dutch newspaper publisher NDU. During the late 1970s and 1980s it experimented with electronic article delivery, including the ADONIS project, which sought to distribute scientific articles digitally to libraries. A major transition toward internet publishing followed the University Licensing Project, developed with American universities in the early 1990s. That work helped establish the infrastructure for ScienceDirect, launched in 1997 as an online platform for journals and scholarly books. Researchers and libraries gradually moved from print-only subscriptions toward electronic access, making digital distribution and licensing the center of Elsevier's business. Elsevier broadened from content distribution into research discovery and evaluation. Scopus launched in 2004 as a multidisciplinary abstract and citation database. SciVal, introduced later through the company's research-analytics development, gave institutions tools for examining publication output, collaboration, grants and comparative performance. The company also expanded into engineering, clinical information, research management and data services. In the 2010s, acquisitions connected Elsevier to researcher workflows and open scholarly communication. The purchase of Mendeley in 2013 was controversial because users viewed the service as an open alternative to conventional publishing infrastructure. Later acquisitions and integrations included SSRN, Digital Commons, PlumX, Pure, Newsflo, Science-Metrix, Hivebench and Interfolio. Supporters described these moves as investments in an integrated research ecosystem; critics characterized them as increasing commercial control over researcher data and scholarly infrastructure. Elsevier's present identity is broader than that of a conventional journal publisher. The company describes itself as a global information analytics business with publishing roots. It combines journals, books and reference works with citation databases, clinical platforms, institutional analytics, research-management software, open-access services and professional events. Its scale has made it a major gatekeeper in scholarly communication, but that position has also produced recurring disputes about pricing, copyright, licensing, access to publicly funded research, editorial labor, text and data mining, and the commercial ownership of research tools.
- 2019
Kumsal Bayazit became chief executive
[1]Kumsal Bayazit was appointed chief executive of Elsevier in February 2019.
- 2013
Mendeley acquired
[1]The acquisition brought a widely used research-management and collaboration platform into Elsevier's portfolio.
- 2004
Scopus launched
[1]The company launched a multidisciplinary abstract and citation database for scholarly discovery and analysis.
- 1997
ScienceDirect launched
[1]Elsevier introduced a major online platform for electronic journals, books and reference materials.
- 1991
University Licensing Project began
[1]A collaboration with American universities explored licensing copyrighted scholarly material for internet distribution.
- 1979
ADONIS electronic-delivery project launched
[1]Elsevier and partners began testing network-based delivery of scientific articles to libraries.
- 1971
Excerpta Medica acquired
[1]The medical abstract publisher strengthened Elsevier's position in biomedical information.
- 1970
North-Holland Publishing acquired
[1]The acquisition expanded Elsevier's scientific and technical publishing presence.
- 1947
First English-language journal
[1]Elsevier began publishing Biochimica et Biophysica Acta, marking an important step in its international scientific expansion.
- 1939
London distribution company established
[1]Elsevier created a London operation to distribute academic titles in the British Commonwealth, excluding Canada.
Products and positioning
A global research, health-information and analytics provider combining scholarly publishing with digital infrastructure for discovery, assessment, workflow and clinical decision-making.
Digital scholarly platform · 1997
ScienceDirect
ScienceDirect is Elsevier's principal online environment for accessing journal articles, electronic books, reference works, handbooks and book series. It covers physical sciences and engineering, life sciences, health sciences, and social sciences and humanities. Abstracts are often available without subscription, while complete texts may require institutional access, an individual subscription or pay-per-view.
Citation and abstract database · 2004
Scopus
Scopus indexes scholarly literature across disciplines and provides citation, author and publication information. Universities, funders and research organizations use it for literature discovery, bibliometric analysis and institutional assessment, although its coverage and use in evaluation remain subjects of academic debate.
Research analytics · 2009
SciVal
SciVal provides analytical tools for examining research output, collaboration, funding-related indicators and institutional performance. It is designed for research offices, university leaders and policy organizations seeking comparative views of scholarly activity.
Clinical information platform
ClinicalKey
ClinicalKey is a professional medical information service that brings together clinical reference content, journals, books, multimedia and other resources for physicians, nurses, allied-health professionals and students.
Clinical decision support
ClinicalPath
ClinicalPath is an evidence-oriented service for cancer-care pathways and clinical decision support. It is intended to help healthcare organizations structure treatment decisions and align care with available evidence.
Medical journal portfolio
The Lancet
The Lancet is one of Elsevier's best-known medical journal brands. Its portfolio includes the flagship general medical journal and specialist titles covering fields such as oncology, infectious diseases, neurology and global health.
Life-sciences journal portfolio
Cell
Cell is a prominent life-sciences journal brand within Elsevier's portfolio and serves as the anchor for a broader group of research journals in biology and related disciplines.
Research workflow software
Mendeley
Mendeley provides tools for organizing references, managing research papers and supporting collaboration. Its acquisition connected Elsevier with researchers' day-to-day literature workflows and generated controversy over the commercialization of a service previously associated with open sharing.
Biomedical database
EMBASE
EMBASE is a biomedical and pharmacological literature database used for evidence discovery, systematic reviews, drug research and clinical investigation.
Engineering information service
Engineering Village
Engineering Village provides engineering literature discovery and indexing, including access to Compendex and related technical information resources.
Controversies
2021
Publishers sue Shopify over alleged textbook piracy
In a lawsuit filed in a U.S. court, five textbook publishers accused Shopify of allowing websites that use its technology to reproduce and sell textbooks and other materials that the publishers allege were pirated or infringed their trademarks. The publishers' allegations are claims made in the lawsuit and do not represent a court determination. The report identifies Shopify as the defendant and describes the claims as concerning websites using its technology.
2018
Anticompetitive-practices complaint
A complaint to the European Commission alleged that Elsevier's confidential subscription agreements and market position were anticompetitive. The Commission chose not to investigate.
2009
Paid favorable-review request
A marketing email offered academics an online-store voucher for posting five-star reviews of Clinical Psychology. Elsevier said the request was a marketing mistake and that reviews should not be incentivized toward positive outcomes.
2004
Academic criticism of journal pricing
Stanford University's senate criticized the prices of some Elsevier journals and encouraged faculty to reconsider submitting work or performing editorial labor for publishers it viewed as excessively expensive.
Marketing campaigns
- 2016Dutch open-access agreement
Netherlands
Elsevier pledged that 30% of research by Dutch authors in its journals would be made open access by 2018.
Outcome. The agreement became an example in wider debates over national-level publisher negotiations.
- 2015Dutch open-access boycott threat
Netherlands
The Association of Universities in the Netherlands threatened a collective boycott during negotiations over open-access publishing and subscription terms.
Outcome. Negotiations continued and resulted in a later commitment to expand open-access publication for Dutch researchers.
Brand decisions
2013
Acquire MendeleyM&ABackground
Researcher workflow software offered Elsevier a way to extend beyond content publication into literature management and collaboration.
Action taken
Elsevier acquired Mendeley, a platform for managing and sharing research papers.
Aftermath
Users criticized the transaction as commercialization of an open-science service and expressed concern about changes to sharing and access features.
2004
Launch ScopusProduct launchBackground
Demand for multidisciplinary literature discovery and citation analysis was growing among researchers and institutions.
Action taken
Elsevier introduced Scopus, a subscription database covering scholarly publications and citation relationships.
Aftermath
Scopus became a major research-discovery and bibliometric product alongside established citation databases.
1997
Launch ScienceDirectProduct launchBackground
Experiments in electronic article delivery and university licensing created a foundation for internet distribution of scholarly content.
Action taken
Elsevier launched ScienceDirect as an online repository and access platform for journals and scholarly books.
Aftermath
The platform became central to the shift from print subscriptions toward electronic institutional access.
Recent events
Elsevier integrates STATdx into Nuance PowerScribe[4]
Reported:
Elsevier announced that it had integrated its STATdx diagnostic decision-support tool into Nuance Communications’ PowerScribe radiology reporting software.
Publishers sue Shopify over alleged textbook piracy[3]
Reported:
Five textbook publishers filed a lawsuit in a U.S. court accusing Shopify of allowing websites using its technology to reproduce and sell textbooks and other materials allegedly pirated or infringing the publishers’ trademarks. The allegations are claims in the lawsuit, not a stated court determination.
- Unconfirmed
IChemE launches Carbon Capture, Science and Technology[5]
IChemE launched Carbon Capture, Science and Technology, a fully open-access journal covering carbon capture research, published in partnership with Elsevier.
- Unconfirmed
National labs and publishing organizations establish a name-change process[6]
All 17 U.S. national laboratories, including SLAC, partnered with scientific publishers and other organizations on a process to help researchers request name changes on previously published papers.
- Unconfirmed
Mark Allen Group completes acquisition of Elsevier publishing portfolio[7]
Reported:
Mark Allen Group acquired 13 magazines and newsletters and related business from Elsevier Limited, part of RELX Group. The acquired publications will join MAG’s B2B publishing business.
Elsevier and The Lancet Infectious Diseases announce vaccine webinar series[8]
Reported:
Elsevier announced that it will host an upcoming COVID-19 vaccine webinar series produced in partnership with The Lancet Infectious Diseases. The series is planned for the general public and scientific audiences.
Elsevier releases updated DDIRC 2.0 in PharmaPendium[9]
Reported:
Elsevier, together with pharmaceutical collaborators, further refined and extended its drug-drug interaction risk calculator in PharmaPendium. The DDIRC 2.0 release includes updated visualizations and filters, a more comprehensive dataset, and improved dossier submission support.
Elsevier integrates MapStand data and news into Geofacets[10]
Reported:
Elsevier announced that MapStand data layers and news had been integrated into its Geofacets information solution. The collaboration adds interactive map overlays using data from over 40 countries and integrates MapStand's news ticker.
Elsevier launches Transition to Practice in the US[11]
Reported:
Elsevier announced the US launch of Transition to Practice, an online learning platform for new nurses transitioning from academia to clinical practice.
Elsevier launches PatientPass in the US[12]
Reported:
Elsevier announced the US launch of PatientPass, a cloud-based patient engagement platform that delivers personalized educational materials to patients' mobile devices and is listed on Epic App Orchard for hospitals and health systems using Epic EHR.
Showing the 10 most recent.
Sources18 sources
- 1Elsevieren.wikipedia.org
- 2Elsevier official websiteelsevier.com
- 3Publishers sue Shopify over alleged textbook piracyinfotel.ca
- 4Elsevier将STATdx集成至Nuance PowerScribeitnonline.com
- 5IChemE推出《Carbon Capture, Science and Technology》期刊thechemicalengineer.com
- 6美国国家实验室与出版机构建立姓名变更流程miragenews.com
- 7Mark Allen Group 完成收购 Elsevier 出版物组合dailyecho.co.uk
- 8Elsevier与《柳叶刀·传染病学》宣布推出疫苗网络研讨会系列finanznachrichten.de
- 9Elsevier在PharmaPendium推出更新版DDIRC 2.0finanznachrichten.de
- 10Elsevier将MapStand数据和新闻整合至Geofacetsprnewswire.com
- 11Elsevier 在美国推出 Transition to Practiceprnewswire.com
- 12Elsevier在美国推出PatientPassprnewswire.com
- 13Elsevier推出Elderly Care Chinaprnewswire.com
- 14Elsevier推出免费开放的生物多样性内容专题prnewswire.com
- 15Elsevier的ClinicalPath获MedTech Breakthrough奖prweb.com
- 16爱思唯尔推出 Veridata EDCprnewswire.com
- 17Elsevier收购Authessprnewswire.com
- 18Elsevier收购3D4Medicaledsurge.com
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