Top 7 Alternatives to Elsevier for Accessing Academic Journals

Elsevier

vs.

ACS Technologies

59

Elsevier and ACS Technologies are two websites that offer a variety of services related to academic publishing, research, and education. Both websites provide extensive databases of scholarly articles, journals, and books. Elsevier has a larger selection of journal articles than ACS Technologies, but ACS Technologies offers more options for online publishing tools. Elsevier provides comprehensive tools for authors to submit manuscripts and access peer-reviews. It also offers a range of services such as courseware, learning management systems, and content management solutions. On the other hand, ACS Technologies focuses mainly on providing software solutions for all aspects of academic publishing including manuscript submission, peer review management, editorial workflow automation, and publishing processes. In terms of educational resources, Elsevier provides an extensive library with access to textbooks from top publishers as well as study materials for students at all levels. ACS Technologies also offers educational resources such as eBooks and webinars from industry experts on topics such as publishing technology. Overall, both websites have their own strengths when it comes to providing services related to academic publishing and research. Whether you need online publishing tools or educational resources, you can find what you’re looking for on either website.

Elsevier

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Harvard

32

Elsevier and Harvard are two leading academic publishers of scholarly research that both provide high-quality documents for learning and research. While Elsevier specializes in science, technology, and medical publications, Harvard University Press focuses on social sciences, the humanities, law, history, economics and more. Both are well-respected sources of information with a long history of excellence. While both websites have similar features such as search capabilities to find publications and ordering options for books or journals, Elsevier has some additional features not available on the Harvard website. These features include ebooks in PDF format, downloadable data sets to support research projects, and advanced search filters that allow users to narrow their searches by topic or publication year. In terms of accessibility, Harvard's website is user friendly with large fonts and clear navigation menus while Elsevier's site provides an intuitive interface with drop down menus for easy navigation. Additionally, the Harvard website provides multiple language settings compared to only English available on Elsevier's platform. Overall, both websites offer an excellent selection of scholarly materials for researchers but differ slightly in their content offerings and range of tools available to access information easily.

Elsevier

vs.

Sci-Hub

45

Elsevier and Sci-Hub are two popular websites for accessing scientific information. Elsevier is a large commercial publisher of academic journals, books, and online databases. It offers subscription access to its products as well as single article purchases. Sci-Hub is an open-access website that provides free access to scholarly articles and other scientific literature. Both websites offer comprehensive collections of scientific literature in a variety of formats including full text, abstracts, and citations. However, the scope of Elsevier’s content is more extensive than that of Sci-Hub since it includes both proprietary publications as well as open access materials. Sci-Hub focuses primarily on open access materials while providing some limited access to a few subscription based journals and databases. In terms of usability, Elsevier’s interface is easy to use with advanced search capabilities allowing users to refine their searches by subject area, author name or journal title. Sci-Hub also provides powerful search capabilities but does not offer any additional features such as sorting results by relevance or date published. Overall, Elsevier offers the most comprehensive selection of scientific material but at a price while Sci-Hub offers free access to much of the same content albeit with fewer features available for refining searches.

Elsevier

vs.

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)

3

Elsevier and Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) are both online platforms containing a vast array of scholarly articles, journals, conference proceedings and other academic literature. Elsevier provides access to millions of open-access articles from its partner network as well as proprietary content that requires a subscription or pay-per-view purchase. The platform allows users to search for content by keyword, author or title. It also provides tools for citation management, article recommendation and alerting services. The IEEE platform provides access to scholarly content on electrical engineering topics such as design, telecommunications and computer science. Access is provided through multiple sources such as the IEEE Xplore Digital Library which includes journals, magazines, conference proceedings and standards from the IEEE organization. Other sources include the IEEE Institute which curates industry news, research reports and press releases; the IEEE Explore online platform which covers more than 4 million documents; the IEEE Standards Association with access to thousands of technology standards; and various eBooks available for purchase. Both websites offer an array of features designed to offer comprehensive coverage on specific subjects while also making it easier for researchers to find relevant materials quickly.

Elsevier

vs.

JSTOR

32

Elsevier and JSTOR are two websites that provide access to online academic resources. Each website offers its own unique strengths. Elsevier is a large publisher of scholarly journals, books, and other materials. It has access to over 2,500 journals from more than 150 countries, as well as more than 10 million articles. It also provides access to textbooks, case studies, multimedia content, and interactive resources. JSTOR is a digital library of academic journals, books, and primary sources. Its collection includes more than 12 million items from over 1,200 publishers around the world. It also includes digital versions of historical newspapers and magazines as well as audio recordings of speeches and interviews. In addition to the content available on the site itself, it provides access to other digital libraries such as Project Gutenberg and HathiTrust. Both websites offer search capabilities for users to easily find what they are looking for. However, Elsevier's search engine is more comprehensive since it searches across all its resources whereas JSTOR only searches within its own collections. Elsevier also offers additional features such as citation tracking and email alerts for new articles related to specific topics or authors. In terms of user experience, Elsevier's interface is much easier to use due to its clear navigation structure and intuitive design. In contrast, JSTOR's interface might be intimidating for first-time users due to its lack of visual cues or instruction on how to navigate the site. Overall, both sites offer invaluable tools for students and scholars alike; however each platform caters towards different needs depending on the type of research being conducted or material being sought out.

Elsevier

vs.

MDPI

34

Elsevier and MDPI are both websites that provide access to scientific content with the aim of advancing science, technology, and medicine. Elsevier is one of the world’s leading providers of scientific, technical, and medical information. It has a wide range of journals across multiple fields and topics, as well as an extensive library containing books, book series, reference works, protocols, databases, and more. Conversely, MDPI is an open access publisher that publishes over 200 peer-reviewed academic journals on a wide range of topics in the sciences. It also maintains an online repository for authors to submit their research for publication. Both websites offer a host of features to make the publishing process easier. For instance, Elsevier provides tools such as Mendeley Data Repository which helps authors organise their research data while MDPI offers services such as Sciverse which allows users to search its database for research papers relevant to their interests. Both sites also offer editorial services such as copyediting and proofreading to ensure accuracy before publication. Additionally, both allow authors to track their submissions through each stage with regular updates from subject specialists regarding the status of their papers. Finally, both websites strive to ensure quality control throughout the publication process by implementing peer-review systems where experts evaluate submissions before they are published on the site or sent out for formal review. This ensures that only accurate and high-quality information is disseminated in publications produced by both Elsevier and MDPI.

Elsevier

vs.

PubMed

12

Elsevier and PubMed are two of the most popular online subscription services for medical professionals. Both offer a vast array of resources related to medical research, clinical studies, and health information. Elsevier offers its users access to journals, books, conferences and other publications from the world’s leading scientific publishers. It also has a host of reference materials available including drug databases, clinical guidelines, patient handouts and continuing education materials. Elsevier has an advanced search engine that allows users to quickly filter their results by author, subject matter or keyword. The website also provides additional tools such as citation alerts and plagiarism detection software. Furthermore, users can save searches for later review or create custom alerts for new content related to their topic of interest. PubMed is a free resource provided by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). It contains over 28 million citations taken from MEDLINE and PreMEDLINE publications with links to full-text articles when available. Users can search PubMed using either keywords or special tags called Medical Subject Headings (MeSH). PubMed also supports advanced search options including limits on date range or language as well as field tags that allow searches focusing on specific types of information such as authorship or publication type. Additionally, users have access to the MyNCBI feature which allows them to store search histories and create personal collections of citations.

Elsevier

vs.

Scopus

16

Elsevier and Scopus are both bibliographic databases that provide access to scientific literature. Elsevier is a content platform that hosts journals, books, and other documents from many disciplines in the sciences and social sciences. Scopus covers peer-reviewed literature from thousands of publishers around the world. It includes journal articles, conference proceedings, book chapters, reports, and more. Both websites allow users to search for scholarly resources and access full-text content through libraries or direct subscriptions. Elsevier’s database provides coverage of over 17 million records with over 10 million full-text documents in various formats including PDFs, HTMLs, ebooks, images and audio/video clips. In comparison, Scopus has a broader scope than Elsevier; it contains over 33 million records across all disciplines including life sciences, physical sciences, health care sciences and social sciences. Elsevier offers advanced search options such as Boolean operators (e.g., “AND”) which allows users to create more precise searches by combining words or phrases. Its relevance ranking feature shows the most relevant results first based on the user's query. Moreover, its citation analysis tool allows users to trace research developments over time by identifying which documents have been cited most often by other documents in its database. On the other hand Scopus' advanced search capabilities include field searching which allows users to narrow down their search results by specific criteria such as author name or publication title. Additionally, it offers an alerting service through which users can set up automatic alerts for particular topics so they can be notified when new findings become available on those topics.