Discover RIMS vs Elsevier Pure
Pure is the most widely adopted research information system in the world. This page sets out where it is the stronger choice, where Discover RIMS fits better, and the facts behind both — with sources you can check.
The short version
Pure is a mature, broad platform: Elsevier states it is trusted by over 500 universities, research institutes and funders across 50+ countries. It covers the full research administration lifecycle, including an Award Management module for funding, and draws on a very large catalogue of metadata sources.
Discover RIMS is narrower on purpose. It does the core of research information management — researcher profiles, publications, international collaboration, SDG mapping and leadership dashboards — from five global sources, and it is deployed where your policy requires: cloud, on-premise or hybrid. If your institution needs full grants administration today, Pure covers ground that we do not.
Side by side
| Discover RIMS | Elsevier Pure | |
|---|---|---|
| Data sources | Five as standard: Scopus, OpenAlex, ORCID, Crossref, Scimago. Web of Science, PubMed and IRIS as custom integrations. | A large published catalogue, including Scopus, Web of Science, Crossref, ORCID, PubMed, arXiv, Unpaywall, PlumX and many national systems.Source 2 |
| Public showcase | SEO-indexed public researcher profiles. A live instance runs at discover.unhas.ac.id. | Pure Portal: a branded, search-optimised public showcase of profiles, publications, projects and funding.Source 3 |
| Grants & awards | Not part of the platform today. Discover RIMS covers research information, not funding administration. | Award Management module covering the funding lifecycle from application to project close-out.Source 1 |
| SDG mapping | Every publication classified across the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals, automatically. | Not documented as a Pure feature on Elsevier’s Pure pages. |
| Deployment | Cloud-managed (AWS, Google Cloud or Azure), on-premise in your own data centre, or hybrid. | Cloud SaaS on AWS, with regions including Ireland, N. Virginia, Singapore, Sydney, Montréal and Ningxia. Self-hosting exists for legacy customers.Source 4 |
| Identity & standards | SAML 2.0 and OpenID Connect, including Shibboleth. API-first architecture. | REST API published as an OpenAPI 3 specification, CERIF XML mapping, OAI-PMH export, ORCID, Active Directory and Shibboleth.Sources 5, 6 |
| Time to go live | About six months, followed by a three-month post-launch warranty. | Elsevier does not publish a standard timeline. One customer documented phase 1 running October 2012 to November 2013, with a second phase for Award Management in 2015–2016.Source 7 |
| Pricing | Annual subscription in USD, quoted per institution by size and deployment model. Implementation, training, documentation, maintenance and upgrades are included. | Not published on Elsevier’s website. The one official public figure is a UK G-Cloud 14 listing: £51,656 to £250,000 per instance per year — a public-sector framework price, not a general list price.Sources 8, 9 |
| Adoption | In production at Universitas Hasanuddin, covering 18 faculties. You can inspect the live instance. | Over 500 universities, research institutes and funders in 50+ countries, per Elsevier.Source 1 |
Choose Pure if…
- You need grants and award administration in the same system as your research outputs.
- Your reporting depends on the widest possible metadata catalogue, including national systems and exercise-specific formats.
- Your institution requires a vendor with a large global support ecosystem, user community and published integration standards such as CERIF and OAI-PMH.
- You are already committed to the wider Elsevier stack and want the pieces to fit together.
Choose Discover RIMS if…
- You need the core of research information management, and enterprise-tier budgets are not realistic for your institution.
- Policy requires on-premise or hybrid deployment, or a specific data region.
- You want SDG classification of research output without buying a separate analytics product.
- You want to inspect a working production instance with real researchers in it before you commit.
On pricing, plainly
Neither vendor publishes a public price list, and we are not going to pretend otherwise. What is public is the UK G-Cloud 14 listing for Pure, which states a range of £51,656 to £250,000 per instance per year for that framework. That figure is not a quote for your institution, and framework pricing reflects a specific procurement context.
Our own model is an annual subscription quoted per institution, scoped by size and deployment. What we do publish is what the subscription includes, and the deployment models it covers. If a vendor will not tell you what is inside the number, that is worth asking about before you compare the numbers themselves.
For what these systems actually cost, see what a research information system costs — real contract values and published rate cards.
Questions worth asking both of us
- Which data sources are included as standard, and which cost extra?
- How well are humanities, social sciences and non-English output covered? Both platforms inherit the coverage limits of the databases they ingest.
- Can we export everything, in a documented format, if we leave? Elsevier documents offboarding through the Pure Web Service API; ask us the same question.
- Who owns the data, and where does it physically sit?
- What happens to researcher profiles when someone changes affiliation?
- Can we see a production instance, not a demo dataset?
Questions we are asked
Is Discover RIMS a drop-in replacement for Pure?
Not in every respect. The core overlaps — profiles, publications, collaboration, reporting — but Pure also covers grants and award administration, which Discover RIMS does not. Institutions that need funding workflows in the same system should weigh that first.
Can we migrate our data out of Pure?
Elsevier documents offboarding through the Pure Web Service API, so the data can be extracted. Migration is scoped per institution: we map your content types, check what the API returns, and agree what carries across before any contract is signed.
Which data sources are included?
Scopus, OpenAlex, ORCID, Crossref and Scimago as standard. Web of Science, PubMed and IRIS are available as custom integrations.
Can Discover RIMS run on our own servers?
Yes. Cloud-managed, on-premise in your own data centre, and hybrid are all supported, and you choose the data region for cloud deployments.
How is Discover RIMS priced?
An annual subscription quoted per institution by size and deployment model, including implementation, training, documentation, maintenance and upgrades. Request a quote and we will scope it to your institution.
Sources
- Elsevier, Pure product page (adoption figure, modules) — elsevier.com/products/pure
- Elsevier, Pure data sources — elsevier.com/products/pure/data-sources
- Elsevier, Pure Portal — elsevier.com/products/pure/showcasing-and-networking
- Pure Help Center, hosting and installation — helpcenter.pure.elsevier.com
- Pure Help Center, Pure API user guide — helpcenter.pure.elsevier.com/pure-api
- Pure Help Center, CERIF XML mapping — helpcenter.pure.elsevier.com/web-service
- University of Vienna, euroCRIS 2017 presentation (implementation phases) — dspacecris.eurocris.org
- UK Digital Marketplace, G-Cloud 14 listing for Pure (price range, onboarding and offboarding) — applytosupply.digitalmarketplace.service.gov.uk
- Elsevier, Pure contact page (pricing routed to sales) — elsevier.com/products/pure/contact-us
Claims were checked in September 2026. If something here is out of date or wrong, tell us and we will correct it.