COUNTER Code of Practice adopted by Elsevier-ScienceDirect

["Gillingham Emily" <Emily.Gillingham@oxon.blackwellpublishing.com>]

**COUNTER News Release**

Code of Practice adopted by Elsevier-ScienceDirect

Elsevier, a multiple media publisher of scientific, technical and medical
information, has signed a declaration of compliance of the usage reports
for its product ScienceDirect, with the international COUNTER Code of
Practice (Release 1), which governs the recording and exchange of online
usage data. The COUNTER Code of Practice is supported by librarians,
publishers and intermediaries worldwide, as well as by their professional
organizations. It promotes the credible, consistent and compatible
measurement of the usage data from online information resources.

Eefke Smit, Managing Director of ScienceDirect, who has been nominated to
the Board of Directors of COUNTER, said: "Participation in COUNTER and
particularly compliance with its Release 1 Code of Practice will help us
further meet and understand librarian information needs. COUNTER
facilitates providing usage data in a way that is most meaningful to them
while providing us usage data we can use to continually improve our
products. What this comes down to is better customer service and we are
thrilled about it."

Peter Shepherd, COUNTER Project Director, said "We are delighted that
Elsevier is now providing usage reports that comply with Code of Practice.
Their 1800+ journals represent a very significant increase in the number
of titles for which COUNTER compliant usage reports are now available.
Elsevier has been a strong supporter of the COUNTER initiative since it
was launched in 2002 and these reports are a further indication of the
company's commitment to improving industry standards for online usage
data. Librarians will welcome this news.'

About COUNTER

COUNTER (Counting Online Usage of Networked Electronic Resources) is a
multi-agency, not-for-profit organization whose objective is to develop
and maintain a single, internationally accepted, extendible Code of
Practice that allows the usage of online information products and services
to be measured more consistently.

The definitive Register of COUNTER-compliant vendors is available on the
COUNTER website (http://www.projectCounter.org). Only vendors and usage
reports included on this list should be regarded as being COUNTER
compliant.

About Elsevier

Elsevier is a world-leading publisher of scientific, technical and medical
information products and services. Working in partnership with the global
science and health communities, the company publishes more than 1800
journals and 2200 new books per year, in addition to offering a suite of
innovative products, such as ScienceDirect. (http://www.sciencedirect.com)
and MDConsult (http://www.mdconsult.com), bibliographic databases, online
reference works and subject specific portals.

Elsevier (http://www.Elsevier.com) is a global company headquartered in
Amsterdam, The Netherlands and has offices worldwide. The company is part
of the Reed Elsevier Group plc (http://www.reedelsevier.com) a
world-leading publisher and information provider. Operating in the science
and medical, legal, education and business-to-business sectors, Reed
Elsevier provides high-quality and flexible information solutions to
users, with increasing emphasis on the Internet as a means of delivery.
Reed Elsevier's ticker symbols are REN (Euronext Amsterdam), REL (London
Stock Exchange), RUK and ENL (New York Stock Exchange).

Contacts:
Elsevier
Marthyn Borghuis
Science Direct
mborghuis@elsevier.com <mailto:mborghuis@elsevier.com>

COUNTER
Peter Shepherd
Project Director - COUNTER
pshepherd@projectCounter.org <mailto:pshepherd@projectCounter.org> 

Note: There is a freely accessible demo version of the Elsevier Customer
Usage Reporting site available at: <http://usagereports.elsevier.com>
username: demo password: demo