First: Magnitude and Modernity: Marefa database contains:
- 850 Academic journals and statistical reports issued by various bodies (universities, research centers, public statistical departments, central banks, scientific associations, regional organizations) in the Arab world in three languages which are Arabic, English and French.
- Marefa database will provide 45,000 academic journals in the first year. This number will be increased to reach 70,000 academic journals in the second year and it will continue to increase on yearly basis.
- Thousands of dissertations (masters and PhD).
- The availability of over 7,000 book reviews issued in the Arab World.
- Thousands of articles, scientific researches, book reviews and dissertations will be increased yearly.
- This database involves over 250 universities, research centers, statistical apparatus and regional organizations in the Arab world in 18 countries. These bodies supply their journals and publications to Marefa database on regular and continuous basis.
Second: Diversity and Comprehensiveness: Marefa database encompasses diverse disciplines and scientific specialties whereas each specialty has its own database as follows:
- Humanities
- Social sciences
- Natural sciences
- Engineering sciences
- Medical sciences, associated sciences, pharmacology and health sciences
- Economics, finances and business administration
- Library science, computer science and information technology
- Periodic statistical reports
Third: MARC 21 Format for Bibliographic Data: Marefa database utilizes MARC 21 Format for Bibliographic Data which is automatically read and comprehended between computers. Thus it meets the demands of the age of digital libraries. The computer system for Marefa database is equipped with MARC 21 Format which is an exceptional system in both the Arab World and internationally.
Fourth: Copyrights and intellectual property: Publication agreements have been signed with around 250 Arab organizations in 18 Arab countries to incorporate their journals and reports in Marefa database. These agreements provide the protections for intellectual property for the publishing authorities that work together with Marefa World Company.
Fifth: Reasonable subscription prices:
Marefa database provides flexible prices to all subscribing parties and offers special discounts for associations or group subscriptions. In addition, the database provides simultaneous and unlimited access to all users from the same organization with no additional costs.
Sixth: Modernity: (Marefa) database covers the latest years of publications of various academic contents (journals, reports, and others …), and work is underway to provide and index this academic material within a short period of publication.
Seventh: Immediate results of relevance: (Marefa) database provides search results relevant to meet the thematic requirements of researchers in various disciplines of scientific knowledge and in an immediate and rapid manner.
Eighth: Ease of use: (Marefa) database includes computer system and user interfaces that provide an easy and highly flexible interactive method of communication between the beneficiary and the system. The search process comprises a variety of determinants, and the ability to display the results and sort them in more than one way.
Ninth: An integrated content within a single window: (Marefa) database allows its users the ability to navigate in numerous sources of information that provide large, diverse and comprehensive content in a way that guarantees saving time and effort during the search and retrieval process.
Tenth: Access to reliable content at any time: (Marefa) database ensures its users access to valuable and reliable scientific content that is provided directly from its original sources at any time and place and when direct access is required
Eleventh: Overall quality: (Marefa) database is subject to a series of scientific steps and a variety of quality assurance processes that aim to control and guarantee the quality of the content presented to the beneficiaries. This is achieved in line with the latest international scientific standards. This is also applied through either the technical procedures of indexing and objective analysis … etc, or in terms of the service by focusing on providing high quality services that ensure the highest degree of satisfaction of the beneficiary.
In addition to other premium services, where (Marefa) database provides its users with a range of advanced services (exchange, printing and storage of content, the selection of a particular or various styles of citation (reference citation), and also enables the researcher to create folders, share documents, as well as to save various search processes, and to customize settings as desired … etc. these are some of the various features that serve the researcher.
All of the above characteristics and features are designed to achieve the highest degree of utility and satisfaction of the beneficiary