Elsevier journals currently offers 3D visualization services to authors and readers

Elsevier, a world-leading provider of scientific, technical and medical information products and services, and Kitware, a worldwide leader in developing advanced visualization technologies, today announced that Elsevier journals offer the opportunity to upload 3D datasets when submitting a paper for publication. This way, once published, readers can interactively explore 3D datasets next to the online article on ScienceDirect.

3D visualization is important for understanding complex structures, dynamic simulations, and discoveries in various scientific disciplines such as molecular biology, astrophysics, medical imaging and engineering. However, in the course of publishing research papers traditionally, 3D models and data have to be converted into static 2D images, significantly reducing the extent of the author's analysis and the level of interpretation of the research by readers. To address the growing demands for online 3D visualization across various scientific disciplines, Elsevier and Kitware now work in partnership to enable 3D visualization services for research articles available online on ScienceDirect.

To date 23 Elsevier journals within science disciplines molecular biology, archaeology, neuroscience and psychiatry offer 3D visualization services to authors and readers. The specific 3D viewers currently available are: 3D molecular viewer, 3D archaeological viewer and 3D neuroimaging viewer. Over the next three months the number of Elsevier journals offering the service is expected to grow significantly.

Dr. IJsbrand Jan Aalbersberg, SVP Journal and Data Solutions at Elsevier said, "The addition of advanced 3D interactivity to the online Elsevier article empowers our authors to optimally showcase their research and enables our ScienceDirect users to more deeply and efficiently understand the research presented. This latest achievement stemming from Elsevier's Article of the Future program, fully demonstrates what the program stands for: improving optimal communication between author and reader, benefiting both of them."

"Being a part of this project, which is set to providing Elsevier's authors, readers and other users with improved 3D visualization capabilities online on ScienceDirect has been an exceptional opportunity for us," added Julien Jomier, CEO of Kitware SAS in Lyon, France. "Our infrastructure provides the much-needed resources necessary for scientists to interact with publications and maximize their understanding of existing research."

Example articles featuring 3D viewers on ScienceDirect:

• J.H. Cole, C.P. Boyle, A. Simmons, S. Cohen-Woods, M. Rivera, P. McGuffin, P.M. Thompson, C.H.Y. Fu, Body mass index, but not FTO genotype or major depressive disorder, influences brain structure, Neuroscience, Volume 252, 12 November 2013, pp. 109-117, http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306452213005903 (embedded 3D neuroimaging viewer)

• Gerhard W. Weber, Another link between archaeology and anthropology: Virtual anthropology, Digital Applications in Archaeology and Cultural Heritage, Available online 13 April 2013, http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212054813000027 (embedded 3D archaeology viewer)

• Stephen S. Chen, James R. Williamson, Characterization of the Ribosome Biogenesis Landscape in E. coli Using Quantitative Mass Spectrometry, Journal of Molecular Biology, Volume 425, Issue 4, 22 February 2013, pp. 767-779, http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022283612009138 (embedded 3D molecular viewer)

Offering interactive visualization tools and techniques, allowing for better and more accurate interpretation and analysis of research data is one of the pillars of Article of the Future, Elsevier's on-going program to improve the format of the scientific article.