What is a topic page?

Topic pages are designed to help you get up to speed with new topics in your field of research or area of study. The extracts provided on ScienceDirect Topics are drawn from foundational and reference materials. ScienceDirect makes use of machine learning (ML) and natural language processing (NLP) techniques to select relevant topic-based information from Elsevier’s reference materials. These bite-sized extracts from the ScienceDirect content provide easily digestible introductions to a new subject. The source materials used for Topic pages include foundational and reference works such as encyclopedias, journal review articles, monographs, book series and handbooks. Learn more about the science behind Topic pages on Elsevier.com.

On a topic page, you can:

• Read a description of the topic and a general definition of the concept – as of June 2025 these definitions are generated using AI algorithms to extract and summarize a description from a relevant source. We currently have a 77% rate on relevance of the definitions and are aiming to improve this in the coming year.
• View excerpts of relevant information related to the topic with links to the full chapter or article and the related publication’s home page
• Some topics may be relevant in different domain, you can select another domain to explore the topic if this seems to be more relevant to your interest.
• Find related terms, hyperlinked to associated topic pages
• Download the featured chapters and articles
• Add chapter and article PDFs, references and the topic page link to your Mendeley Reference Manager
• Set a search alert
• Browse related publications and featured authors

To access a topic page:

• Search and browse from the Topics home page on ScienceDirect
• From a ScienceDirect article, chapter, or topic page, select the hyperlinked term to open the relevant topic page.
• From a web search results list, select the recommended topic page hyperlink.

To save chapter PDFs or references to your Mendeley Reference Manager:

1. Select ‘+ Add to Mendeley’
2. Follow the on-screen instructions

To receive an email alert when new information about the topic is published:

1. Sign in to ScienceDirect.

   • Note: If you do not have an Elsevier account, you can create one .
2. At the top of the topic page, select ‘Set alert’.
3. Enter a name for the search alert.
4. Select a frequency.
5. Select ‘Save’.