STM publisher Elsevier, Netherlands, and Kitware, a worldwide leader in developing advanced visualization technologies, has 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.
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.
