Elsevier, a leading publisher of scientific, technical and medical (STM) information and the National e-Journals Initiative 2 (NESLi2) have agreed to a four-year license for ScienceDirect, which contains over a quarter of the world's STM information. Key to the agreement is the high usage of ScienceDirect in the UK.

NESLi2 is a product of the UK’s Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC). Lorraine Estelle, CEO at JISC-Collections said: "We are very pleased with the four-year agreement with ScienceDirect. This will create a lot of stability and predictability for the 140 NESLi2 members. Experience demonstrates that the usage of ScienceDirect has always been very high, that’s why we are confident that this contract will contribute to the scientific ambitions we have in the UK.
"Under the agreement, most of the NESLi2 members will continue to have access to the ScienceDirect Freedom Collection, which contains approximately 1,900 journals – almost the entire ScienceDirect journals portfolio.
"This NESLi2-ScienceDirect agreement is of very high importance for Elsevier," said Roy Jakobs, Managing Director for Academic & Government markets. "We are pleased that extended access to our Freedom Collection, which includes an increasing number of backfiles, will support the very active and highly qualified UK scientific community. Increasing research productivity through access to the world’s highest quality information is our ultimate joint goal."

About NESLi2
NESLi2 is the UK’s national initiative for the licensing of electronic journals on behalf of the higher and further education and research communities, 2003-2006. NESLi2 is a product of the JISC and underwritten by the Higher Education Funding Council for England on behalf of the Funding Bodies. NESLi2 follows the three-year Pilot Site Licence Initiative (1995-1997) and the original NESLI (1998-2001), which introduced the concept of a Managing Agent and piloted the use of a model licence for use in negotiating agreements with publishers. During 2002 and 2003 the JISC undertook the Journals Activity and NESLi2 was implemented for 2004 licensing agreements.

About JISC
The Joint Information Systems Committee’s activities support education and research by promoting innovation in new technologies and by the central support of ICT services.

About ScienceDirect
Over a quarter of the world's full text scientific, technical and medical (STM) articles - managed by renowned editors, written by respected authors and read by researchers from around the globe - are available in one place: ScienceDirect.

Elsevier's extensive and unique full-text collection covers authoritative titles from the core scientific literature including high impact factor titles such as THE LANCET, Cell and Tetrahedron. Over eight million articles are available online, including Articles in Press which offer rapid access to recently accepted manuscripts. The critical mass of information available on ScienceDirect is unsurpassed. Coverage includes over 2,000 journals published by Elsevier and dynamic linking to journals from approximately 2,000 STM publishers through CrossRef. An expanding program of online major reference works, handbooks, book series and eBooks in all fields of science seamlessly interlinks with primary research referenced in journal articles.

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, Elsevier’s 7,000 employees in over 70 offices worldwide publish more than 2,000 journals and 1,900 new books per year, in addition to offering a suite of innovative electronic products, such as ScienceDirect, MD Consult, Scopus, bibliographic databases, and online reference works.
Elsevier is a global business headquartered in Amsterdam, The Netherlands and has offices worldwide. Elsevier is part of Reed Elsevier Group plc, 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).