AMSTERDAM, January 7 /PRNewswire/ -- Elsevier, the leading publisher of scientific, technical and medical information products and services, today announced that all research articles in its flagship collection of Cell Press journals will be published online in the new 'Article of the Future' format on http://www.cell.com. Previously released as a demonstration prototype for two sample articles, the Article of the Future is an ongoing collaboration with the scientific community to redefine how scientific articles are presented online. Successful ideas from this project are planned to be rolled-out across Elsevier's portfolio of 2,000 journals available on ScienceDirect, the world's largest scientific, technical and medical database.

By taking advantage of the functionalities afforded by online publishing, our new article format provides authors and readers with more effective and efficient ways to present and access scientific information said Emilie Marcus, Editor in Chief, Cell Press. We'll continue to solicit and incorporate user feedback in developing improvements to the format with the continuing goal of helping to advance scientific research.

In celebration of the launch and to encourage user feedback, Article of the Future articles are accessible for free for Cell Press' flagship title, Cell, on http://www.cell.com, for the first four issues of 2010.

The 'Article of the Future' reflects a new approach to structuring the traditional sections of a research article, moving away from the linear format required by print presentation to an integrated, linked navigation scheme that allows each reader to create a personalized path through the article's content. For example, one of the key features of 'Article of the Future' functionality is a tabbed navigation structure through the Introduction, Results, Figures and Discussion sections, providing experts with in-depth coverage of a particular experiment, while allowing more general readers to absorb the main message without being overwhelmed by additional details.

Readers will also experience a graphical abstract and a highlights section on the landing page of each article, complimenting the abstract text by creating a quickly reviewable visual summary and bullet points. In addition, articles will offer the article's text, a figure and a figure caption at the same time on one screen, with a zooming capability to discover the finer details of a figure. Selected articles take advantage of integrated multimedia by featuring PaperFlicks, a video tour of an article's content.

Elsevier's Content Innovation Initiative

The functional roll-out of these Article-of-the-Future features at Cell Press is part of Elsevier's larger Content Innovation initiative. This initiative aims at improving the formal scientific communication in a scalable way, and includes efforts to enhance the presentation of the current scientific article (like the Article of the Future), but also projects to better connect this article with the larger body of scientific knowledge on the web (like the Reflect annotation tool (http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/authored_newsitem.cws_home/companynews0... 358), which was recently piloted on Cell articles).

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The new capabilities in online publishing allow us to move forward from a one-size-fits-all approach to online formats tailored to specific subject domains. remarked IJsbrand Jan Aalbersberg, Vice President of Content Innovation for Elsevier Science Technology Journal Publishing. Content Innovation is thus also about observing the life-scientist, the mathematician, and the chemist and adding relevant domain-specific value to their workflows. And the reactions on our Article-of-the-Future features and on the Reflect pilot demonstrate that we are on the right track here.

About Cell Press

Cell Press (http://www.cell.com/cellpress), an Elsevier company, is committed to improving scientific communication through the publication of exciting research and reviews. Each of our titles is viewed as a must-read by the scientific community it serves. Cell Press primary research journals include the flagship journal Cell, as well as Neuron, Immunity, Molecular Cell, Developmental Cell, Cancer Cell, Current Biology, Structure, Chemistry Biology, Cell Metabolism, Cell Host Microbe, Cell Stem Cell, and, new to Cell Press, Biophysical Journal, and The American Journal of Human Genetics. Cell Press also publishes the Trends family of reviews journals, including Trends in Cell Biology, Trends in Neurosciences, and Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

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 (http://www.thelancet.com) and Cell (http://www.cell.com), and close to 20,000 book titles, including major reference works from Mosby and Saunders. Elsevier's online solutions include ScienceDirect (http://www.sciencedirect.com), Scopus (http://www.scopus.com), Reaxys (http://www.reaxys.com), MD Consult (http://www.mdconsult.com) and Nursing Consult (http://www.nursingconsult.com), which enhance the productivity of science and health professionals, and the SciVal suite (http://www.scival.com) and MEDai's Pinpoint Review (http://www.medai.com), which help research and health care institutions deliver better outcomes more cost-effectively.

A global business headquartered in Amsterdam, Elsevier (http://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).

Anna Hogrebe Elsevier +31-20-485-3269 newsroom@elsevier.com

SOURCE: Elsevier

CONTACT: Anna Hogrebe, Elsevier, +31-20-485-3269, newsroom@elsevier.com