Elsevier ScienceDirect Access to Some "Non-Subscribed" Journals Now Available

In response to the CDL’s request, Elsevier has activated direct access to many more ScienceDirect journals.  Previously UC faculty, students, and staff could access directly only those journals marked with the green “subscribed” icon; now Elsevier imprint titles with the white “non-subscribed” icon are also available.   While these titles have been available before now via passwords distributed to public service units, direct access will be easier for patrons and allow realistic study of the use of these non-subscribed titles.  The Joint Steering Committee on Shared Collections recommended activating this feature early in the Elsevier contract.

Not all “non-subscribed” journals are available, however.  Journals using the ScienceDirect platform but not published by Elsevier are excluded from this access.  The publishers affected are ASM International, CRC Press, TMS, and World Scientific.  Also not available are Cell Press titles which are indicated in ScienceDirect with the gray and red “partner website” icon.

Because the newly available titles are not subscribed titles, there are no hyperlinks to them in the Periodicals database for UC campuses.  There are also no entries in the CDL directory for them.

Some bibliographic databases do provide generic, non-holding-specific links to full text, and those may lead patrons directly to the articles, but for the most part patrons may not realize that they can access articles published after 1995 in these journals without the assistance of InterLibrary Loan.

Access has been implemented using a fixed transactional allowance provided under the ScienceDirect contract.  When you access an article from an excluded publisher or title, you will see a generalized “Transaction Error Message” which indicates that the account does not allow the transaction or that the account balance has been exhausted.  If it appears, you will need to find a print rather than an online source for that specific article.

As a reminder, if you encounter a problem with an incorrectly scanned pdf for an Elsevier imprint journal, try the HTML version where it exists and use the “Feedback” link on every Elsevier page to report the specific problem article, so Elsevier can remedy the problem for later users.