The ScienceDirect interface provides access to the electronic content owned by Elsevier and third-party information providers like Cell Press. Max Planck researchers have full text access to nearly the entire journal collection with archival content, including Cell Press and The Lancet journals. In addition, the Max Planck Society covers Open Access fees for Max Planck authors in more than 2500 journals. Further details are available on the MPDL website. The MPG subscription also covers a collection of 680 Elsevier eBooks acquired in 2015. Moreover, selected eBook backfiles have been purchased within the scope of the German national licenses program.

Wiley Online Library Books feature over 15,000 scholarly and professional books, handbooks, dictionaries, companions and landmark book series from Blackwell Publishing, John Wiley & Sons, and Wiley-VCH. From this collection, a set of more than 1,000 e-books was purchased for users from the Max Planck Society. This selection is continuously extended by single e-book acquisitions by MPG libraries. In addition, the MPG purchased 9 electronic Major Reference Works and the Encyclopedia of Life Sciences.