Reference at Newman Library

Tag: ScienceDirect

ScienceDirect Now Mobile-Friendly

This week, ScienceDirect articles can be viewed in a way optimized for mobile devices. If you run a search in ScienceDirect (or get a link to an article in ScienceDirect), the database will recognized the dimensions of the device you are using and deliver you a version that is optimized for your device. If you’re on a desktop or laptop, you’ll see articles looking as they always have:

ScienceDirect--desktop view of an article

If you are on a mobile device, such as your phone, the article will look like this:

ScienceDirect--article viewed on mobile phone

 

If you want to try this yourself on your phone, here’s a link to the article pictured in the screenshots above.

Many databases are now being designed this way so that users on mobile devices aren’t required to first go to a special mobile website or a use a specialized app for for that database.

New Interface for ScienceDirect

Today, ScienceDirect has gone live with a new interface. Here’s what Elsevier highlights as the biggest changes:

Thoroughly user-tested, ScienceDirect has been upgraded to make it easier to find relevant articles and books, read an article online, discover open access content and export to Mendeley.

The new release has four key upgrades:

  • A simplified user experience, with less visual clutter and improved design
  • Better visibility of open access content
  • Quicker discovery of relevant ScienceDirect content from search engines
  • Seamless export of citations and full-text articles to Mendeley

A note about Elsevier’s spotlighting Mendeley: Elsevier acquired that citation management system a year ago, which is why they’re focusing on it here. Export to Zotero and RefWorks are equally easy to use.

Should We Include bX Recommender in ScienceDirect

This week, we activated the bX Recommender service in ScienceDirect. The service works somewhat the same as it does in SFX menus: when you are viewing an article, the bX service recommends three relevant articles. Here is a screenshot of a SFX menu with bX recommendations:

Here is what bX looks like in ScienceDirect:

Although bX in ScienceDirect does recommend articles based on the one you are looking at, it suffers from two problems, one that is probably fixable and one that probably isn’t:

  1. Fixable problem: If you access ScienceDirect from off-campus (i.e., via EZproxy) the bX Recommender service doesn’t work at all. ScienceDirect is aware of this problem.
  2. Probably unfixable problem: the recommendations from bX in ScienceDirect only point to other articles in ScienceDirect (the bX service in SFX menus is neutral about its recommendations).

Given the two problems, especially the one that limits recommendations to articles in ScienceDirect, do you think we should keep the bX service active in ScienceDirect or turn it off? Please leave your comments on this post and vote by Feb. 24 on this Qualtrics poll.