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ScienceDirect Topics

ScienceDirect Topics uses cutting-edge technology to help increase your understanding of the information you read. Get seamlessly connected to key topics and unfamiliar terms and concepts while you read without ever having to leave the literature.

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What if the path not taken is the path to discovery?

Researchers and students at every stage of their careers encounter unknown terms and concepts. Our free Topics pages — embedded within thousands of articles — provide reliable contextual information to make it easy to understand new and unfamiliar concepts, without interrupting the flow of your reading.

Get more from your reading

ScienceDirect Topics create an interactive, seamless and convenient reading experience through in-page embedded links. Each link opens a window on the page so your reading experience is never interrupted.

Topics pages are generated using innovative automated technology for information extraction, including natural language processing and AI techniques. Topics deliver the most relevant information from reference books and other published sources on ScienceDirect, offering deeper interdisciplinary knowledge of the material.

Explore Topics pages(opens in new tab/window)

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ScienceDirect Topics Features

Get a seamless reading experience while broadening your understanding of what you are reading. Topics pages:

  • Are free to access on ScienceDirect

  • Give definitions and related terms for each concept

  • Provide snippets of high-quality, relevant, peer-reviewed content

  • Are highly discoverable through search engines and searchable on ScienceDirect

  • Include content-enriched hyperlinks to other topics of interest

  • Are linked from journal articles and book chapters across ScienceDirect

  • Are available across all scientific disciplines on ScienceDirect

View sample Topics page on ScienceDirect(opens in new tab/window)

ScienceDirect Topics
Learn about the technology behind ScienceDirect Topics infographic

Learn about the technology behind ScienceDirect Topics

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ScienceDirect Topics for users: researchers, teachers and students

ScienceDirect Topics provide a robust yet structured starting point for research, teaching or learning.

For research:

  • Makes getting essential answers from published, peer-reviewed books more accessible

  • Provides authoritative introductory overviews to better understand and interpret scientific literature

  • Expedites research and scholarship while increasing the depth of understanding of a topic

  • Enables quick exploration of a novel subject

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For teaching and learning:

  • Assures teachers that the content their students are using is reliable and authoritative

  • Offers an easy, interactive experience for students learning a new concept or reading a journal article for the first time

  • Increases reading speed and convenience with hyperlinked terms from within journal articles and book chapters across ScienceDirect

  • Extracts content from a range of book sources to connect the dots among ideas, facilitating cognitive leaps that move scholarship forward

Download flyer for researchers(opens in new tab/window)

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ScienceDirect Topics for librarians

The ScienceDirect Topics feature enables librarians to better guide researchers, teachers and students on their paths to discovery.

ScienceDirect Topics provide the bridge between journals and books, helping to speed up research outcomes, foster deeper insights and improve your patrons’ knowledge and understanding of subject areas.

Benefits of Topics for libraries:

  • Ensures users are accessing the most accurate and reliable information sources

  • Increases discoverability of books along with journal articles

  • Encourages the co-usage of books, reference works and journals

  • Provides useful data on user behavior for better curation that fills information gaps

  • Improves the return on your investment in full-text resources

View a sample Topics page on ScienceDirect(opens in new tab/window)

Download flyer for librarians(opens in new tab/window)

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ScienceDirect Topics for authors

ScienceDirect Topics highlight the rich and valuable information from our authors by bringing readers in touch with important and relevant foundational knowledge.

  • Increases the accessibility of your published work through enhanced discovery and search engine optimization

  • Brings readers in touch with your important and relevant contributions

  • Creates an essential bridge between journal articles and book chapters

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Related links

ScienceDirect.com(opens in new tab/window)
ScienceDirect Support Center(opens in new tab/window)
ScienceDirect APIs(opens in new tab/window)
Open Access at Elsevier
ScienceDirect LibGuides(opens in new tab/window)
Usage Reports(opens in new tab/window)