Can we use SSO with Elsevier?

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No.

Elsevier uses one SP as a proxy for all products that make use of our shared identity system and there only need for one integration between your IdP (Identity Provider software) and our SP.

That ensures that the users can seamlessly move between different products when your organization has multiple subscriptions with us.

Any.

As long a your software supports SAML 2.0 and you have sufficient control over attribute release, you shouldn't encounter any issues.

Elsevier staff don’t work with that software but our other customers successfully use it to access their Elsevier subscriptions.

SAML 2.0.

We’re currently working on OIDC implementation.

Your Elsevier sales representative.

No.

It depends.

We need to review and discuss your requirements, exchange metadata, configure connections at our and your end, ensure that you release the right attributes and that we process them as intended.

Although it can be technically done in a couple of weeks, it usually takes longer between your decision to enable it and the time your users are actually able to make use of it. That time mostly depends on your readiness, requirements and the complexity of your subscriptions with us.

If all your users are entitled to access all your subscriptions with us then that can be simple and quick.

No.

All the testing is done with a product you don’t subscribe to and your users won’t notice anything.

They will be impacted afterwards, because:

• The flow of gaining access will be different than what they are used to.
• If they have a personal account, they will need to link it to their SSO credentials

We therefore encourage some promotion and user training.

Users are able to keep their user accounts, they will just sign in to them in a different way than before.

No; that’s something that the users will do by linking their SSO credentials to their existing Elsevier user account. The account linking happens via email address confirmation and it only needs to be done once.

If you’re migrating from a non-SSO type of authentication then the instructions for users are available here.

If you’re migrating from one SSO to another then the instructions are available here.

If the product you’re interested in supports granular usage and you have sufficient attribute release control then you can; SSO is actually the best way of doing that.

One way is by setting up user groups and releasing a different memberOf value for them. The values need to be shared with Elsevier in advance.

The other way is by making use of ‘SAML analytics attribute’, we’re currently piloting its implementation on ScienceDirect. We will publish more information about that soon.

For information about specific product usage reporting please consult with your sales representative.

No.

We authenticate the user when they visit via your SSO. This also means that as soon as the user leaves your organization and their network credentials are disabled, they will be unable to access your Elsevier subscriptions.

You will need to release one opaque and persistent identifier for your users so that we can offer them personalization.

For more granular access control we will need to agree on additional attribute release.

There are two ways:

• A user lands on an Elsevier product, navigates to WAYF discovery service, finds your organization in it, is redirected to your SSO and when successfully authenticated, returns to Elsevier, authenticated
or
• By clicking on a link which is configured as a WAYFless URL, is bounced off your SSO and redirected to an Elsevier product and authenticated

We’re also working on additional features that should make user journey shorter if you’re interested in piloting them with us, please get in touch with us.

No.

We have one proxy SP for a number of products and our entityID is not the right target to send a user to. The user needs to be directed to a product.

Yes.

To start it up you need to construct a WAYFless URL. You can set up a WAYFless URL anywhere, for example on your corporate intranet or within your SSO app but also in content discovery services, if they support that.