Elsevier Acquires the Social Science Research Network (SSRN), the Leading Social Science and Humanities Repository and Online Community

LONDON, May 17, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

SSRN will be further developed with Mendeley, Elsevier's scholarly collaboration network, to provide users with leading content, data linking, enhanced metrics and researcher workflow tools, while Mendeley accelerates its social community strategy.  

Elsevier, a world-leading provider of scientific, technical and medical information products and services, announced today the acquisition of the Social Science Research Network (SSRN). Founded in 1994, SSRN is a Rochester, NY-based scholarly research preprint repository and online community. SSRN will be further developed alongside Mendeley, a London-based free reference manager and scholarly collaboration network owned by Elsevier.

SSRN members will benefit from the Mendeley technology platform, its scholarly collaboration network, a leading reference manager and other personal library management tools. Additionally, SSRN members will benefit from access to Mendeley's researcher professional profile capabilities, person to person network communications and "follow" capabilities. For Elsevier and Mendeley, adding SSRN accelerates its social community strategy, brings opportunities for enhanced author relationships, and provides access to a leading resource for content.

"Our goal is to further enhance engagement within and around a SSRN member's academic work, while still providing the same core services that our members value and expect," said Gregg Gordon, President and CEO, SSRN. "Mendeley has thrived since obtaining the support of the world's largest science publisher, and now we will be able to offer broader services that more deeply integrate into the workflows of all parties in the social network of science. Most importantly, we will continue our core mission of providing researchers with free submissions and free downloads."

Researchers and institutions are under increasing pressure to demonstrate research output, lay early claim to intellectual work, generate visibility and discourse, and monitor the impact of their work. SSRN provides the scholarly environment to enable this process around preprint work (a preprint is an article that has not yet undergone peer review). Now, Mendeley and Elsevier can help close the loop from research collaboration and preprint feedback to broad dissemination while providing to SSRN members authoritative performance measurement tools powered by Scopus, Newsflo (global media mentions) and other sources.  

"SSRN has established a solid network in Social Science domains, sharing working papers and showcasing researchers and institutions," said Jan Reichelt, Co-Founder and Managing Director, Mendeley. "Together we can provide greater access to a growing user-generated content base on which we can build new tools and increase engagement between researchers and their papers. We intend to scale and maximize SSRN in ways that benefit authors, institutions and the entire scientific ecosystem."

SSRN's Chairman, CEO and other employees will remain with the company, and SSRN will retain its freemium model, with content 'free to submit, and free to download' for its users. More information about this announcement can be found on Elsevier's online community and information site, Elsevier Connect. Financial terms are not being disclosed.

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About SSRN 

Social Science Research Network (SSRN) is a leading social science and humanities repository and online community. Bringing 'tomorrow's research today,' SSRN is devoted to the rapid worldwide dissemination of social science research. It currently has over 2 million members and 671,000 paper abstracts from over 300,000 authors. It has extracted 9 million references and 9 million footnotes, and matched 6 million citations from its 562,000 full text papers eLibrary database. Its freemium business model provides for free submissions and downloading of content, while revenues are derived from institutional repository and conference management services, job listings and eJournal subscriptions.

About Elsevier  

Elsevier is a world-leading provider of information solutions that enhance the performance of science, health, and technology professionals, empowering them to make better decisions, deliver better care, and sometimes make groundbreaking discoveries that advance the boundaries of knowledge and human progress. Elsevier provides web-based, digital solutions - among them ScienceDirect, Scopus, Elsevier Research Intelligence and ClinicalKey - and publishes over 2,500 journals, including The Lancet and Cell, and more than 33,000 book titles, including a number of iconic reference works. Elsevier is part of RELX Group, a world-leading provider of information and analytics for professional and business customers across industries. http://www.elsevier.com

About RELX Group  

RELX Group is a world‐leading provider of information and analytics for professional and business customers across industries. The group serves customers in more than 180 countries and has offices in about 40 countries. It employs approximately 30,000 people of whom half are in North America. RELX PLC is a London listed holding company which owns 52.9% of RELX Group. RELX NV is an Amsterdam listed holding company which owns 47.1% of RELX Group. The shares are traded on the London, Amsterdam and New York Stock Exchanges using the following ticker symbols: London: REL; Amsterdam: REN; New York: RELX and RENX. The total market capitalisation is approximately 24.6bn GBP / 31.1bn Euro / 35.7bn USD.

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Elsevier
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Colin Tennant
Investor Relations, RELX Group
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