Elsevier announces new generative AI feature

Elsevier, scientific information and data analytics publisher, announced at the beginning of August that it released an alpha version of Scopus AI for researcher testing – a next generation tool that combines generative AI with Scopus' content and data to help researchers get deeper insights faster, support collaboration and societal impact of research.

For more than a decade, Elsevier says it has been using AI and machine learning technologies responsibly in its products combined with its peer-reviewed content, data sets, and analytics to help researchers, clinicians, students and educators discover, advance and apply trusted knowledge.

Researchers, especially those early in their careers or working across disciplines face significant challenges and complexity in their daily work, including an ever-growing volume of data, prevalent misinformation and increasing workloads. They need to understand and explore a particular topic quickly, recognize links across disciplines and collaborate with others for greater research and societal impact. Large Language Models (LLMs) have captured the world’s imagination with their ability to generate content, but they also have shortcomings such as a lack of transparency and hallucinations - inaccuracies or misinterpretations often occurring in AI-based information generation - which can undermine trust in the results delivered, added the publisher.

Elsevier says Scopus AI provides easy-to-read topic summaries based on content from over 27,000 academic journals, from more than 7,000 publishers worldwide, with over 1.8 billion citations, and includes over 17 million author profiles. Content is rigorously vetted and selected by an independent review board, that is made up of 17 world-renowned scientists, researchers and librarians who represent the major scientific disciplines. Researchers can quickly dig deeper and explore these topics in several ways, including suggested follow-up questions and links to the original research. Powered by generative AI and LLM technology in combination with Scopus’s existing search capabilities, the publisher says Scopus AI will help early-career researchers and seasoned academics alike through:

• Summarized views based on Scopus abstracts: Researchers obtain a concise snapshot of any research topic, complete with academic references, reducing lengthy reading time and the risk of hallucinations.
• Easy navigation to "Go Deeper Links" for extended exploration: Scopus AI provides relevant queries for further exploration, leading to hidden insights in various research topics.
• Natural language queries: Researchers can ask questions about a subject in a natural, conversational manner.
• A soon-to-be-added graphical representation, offering new perspectives of interconnected research themes: Scopus AI visually maps search results, offering a comprehensive overview that allows researchers to navigate complex relationships easily.

The publisher says customer-driven innovation is core to Elsevier’s research and product development, the company says it will work closely with the research community to test and develop this innovative new technology. The Scopus AI ‘alpha’, an early-stage version of Scopus AI, is being tested worldwide with approximately 15,000 researchers, with a full product launch anticipated in early 2024.

Maxim Khan, SVP of analytics products and data platform, Elsevier, said: “Researchers need to understand unfamiliar topics, often with little time to do so. Greater collaboration between people in different research disciplines can also lead to greater academic and societal impact of research. We are applying generative AI on top of our data and trusted content to help researchers with these needs. Elsevier has been committed to working with the community and using AI responsibly for many years, from creating quality data to support decision making in research, to helping our customers assess the risks of potential new drug treatments. This is an important next step as we build more sophisticated solutions that will support our customers in the future.”

Customer experience, data privacy and integrity and responsible innovation are at the heart of Elsevier’s product development, added the publisher. The publisher continued, as they embed generative AI features into Scopus and other products, they say they will do so in line with their Responsible AI Principles and their Privacy Principles in collaboration with their communities to ensure the solutions help them achieve their goals.

Elsevier says you can learn more about Scopus AI and how it is supporting research, view a short demo and register your interest here.