Springer launches SpringerReference.com: New scientific developments in advance of print edition

Springer Science+Business Media has launched SpringerReference.com, a new platform for researchers and academic and corporate libraries. It offers living editions of Springer’s eReferences well in advance of their print editions across every subject. Through the platform, scientists can submit updates to articles whenever they want or deem necessary to keep up with the demand for the most recent scientific developments. SpringerReference.com thus offers a way to quickly publish major reference works which need to be constantly updated with the most up-to-date research findings.

The ‘Live eReference’ updates submitted by scientists are peer reviewed to ensure that all content on SpringerReference.com meets the same high standards for quality and integrity that libraries and researchers have come to expect from Springer. These updates are all accessible on one single platform and are interlinked with each other. New articles can easily be added and existing ones updated.

At launch, the new SpringerReference.com gives access to 146 major reference works, corresponding to about 185,000 articles and 220,000 pages. The platform will grow as updates and content are added.

“With SpringerReference.com we are bringing the publication of reference works one huge step further,” said Dr. Thomas Mager, EVP Publishing Product Development, at Springer. “Our readers will find in-depth, scientifically validated knowledge that is easily findable on a single platform. Furthermore, we are giving our authors, in a strictly peer-reviewed environment, the possibility to keep their contributions up to date at the pace at which scientific discovery is moving.” 

Springer References comprise encyclopedias, handbooks and other types of major reference works. The Springer References are multivolume publications, managed by expert scientific boards of editors. These high-quality tomes consist of an organized sequence of entries and contributions by many different authors. The Reference Editorial Office publishes more than 40,000 entries a year covering a wide spectrum of sciences from biomedicine to engineering, from computer science to environmental science and from mathematics to human sciences. The contributions are written in such a way that the reader will benefit from them, even if the field is not his or her area of expertise. SpringerReference.com can be purchased on a subscription-based model.

Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com) is a leading global scientific publisher, delivering quality content through innovative information products and services.  The company is also a trusted provider of local-language professional publications in Europe, especially in Germany and the Netherlands.  In the science, technology and medicine (STM) sector, the group publishes around 2,000 journals and more than 7,000 new books a year, as well as the largest STM eBook Collection worldwide.  Springer has operations in about 20 countries in Europe, the USA, and Asia, and more than 5,500 employees.  In 2010, it generated annual sales of around EUR 866 million.