The Egyptian Knowledge Bank (EKB) is Egypt’s national digital library and research-access platform, established under the country’s Education and Scientific Research Council. It gives Egyptian researchers, faculty, and students free access to major commercial research databases and publisher content that would otherwise require an individual or per-institution subscription. Because EKB is a government-run portal rather than a commercial platform, its registration process, database coverage, and login mechanics are not always clearly documented in English — this guide walks through what EKB actually provides, who is eligible, how to register, and how it fits alongside the identifier and indexing systems (ORCID, Scopus Author ID, Web of Science) that researchers still need on top of it.
What is the Egyptian Knowledge Bank?
EKB was announced in 2014 and went live in January 2016 as a flagship initiative under Egypt’s Presidential Advisory Council for Education and Scientific Research. It functions as a single national gateway: rather than each Egyptian university negotiating and paying for its own database subscriptions individually, EKB centrally licenses access to dozens of publishers and research-analytics platforms and makes that access available, at no direct cost to the individual, to Egyptian citizens and to faculty and students at affiliated institutions.
EKB indexes and provides access to content from more than two dozen publishing and content partners, including Elsevier (Scopus), Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, Springer, Taylor & Francis, SAGE, and ProQuest, alongside general-reference resources such as Encyclopaedia Britannica and National Geographic, and specialized teaching resources.
What research databases does EKB provide access to?
Scopus (Elsevier)
EKB has partnered with Elsevier since 2016 to give Egyptian researchers, faculty, and students access to Scopus, Elsevier’s abstract-and-citation database, along with Elsevier’s analytics tools. Elsevier has stated that EKB access was extended to include Scopus AI from June 2025.
Web of Science and the Arabic Citation Index (ARCI)
EKB also partners with Clarivate. In 2018 Clarivate and EKB announced a partnership to build the Arabic Citation Index (ARCI) — the first citation index dedicated to Arabic-language scholarly literature, built as a regional index within the Web of Science platform (in the same family as Clarivate’s existing Chinese, Russian, Korean, and SciELO regional citation indexes). ARCI launched with an Arabic-language interface to Web of Science content. Separately, in 2019 Clarivate and EKB announced a partnership to deploy Converis, Clarivate’s research information management (CRIS) system, as part of Egypt’s national research-management infrastructure.
For researchers who need to check whether a specific journal is Web-of-Science indexed independent of EKB access, see CASRAI’s guide to the Web of Science Master Journal List.
Who is eligible to register for EKB?
EKB registration is organized around institutional and citizenship categories rather than a single universal signup. Based on EKB’s own registration portal and guidance published by Egyptian university libraries:
- Egyptian citizens can register directly using their National ID and an email address, without needing an intermediary institution.
- University and research-center staff members (faculty and researchers) register under the “Scientific Research and Higher Education” category and select the staff sub-category.
- University students register under the same category using the student sub-category.
- Non-Egyptian faculty and students at Egyptian institutions can also register, verifying their affiliation with a university email address rather than a National ID. Some institutions additionally require non-Egyptian affiliates to complete registration while connected to the campus network, so that EKB can verify the institutional IP range.
Because the exact sub-category options and verification steps can vary slightly by institution and have changed over time, researchers should confirm the current requirements with their own university library or research office before registering.
How to register for EKB: step by step
- Go to the EKB registration page at ekb.eg and select “Scientific Research and Higher Education” from the available access categories.
- Choose your role — university/research-center staff member, or university student — and, where applicable, your institution.
- Enter your identifying details. Egyptian nationals typically provide a National ID; non-Egyptian faculty and students provide their institutional (university) email address instead.
- Verify your registration. EKB (or, at some institutions, the university library) sends a verification email; non-Egyptian affiliates at some universities are asked to complete this step from an on-campus connection.
- Log in and select a database. Once verified, researchers use their EKB credentials to reach the platform’s database landing page and click through to Scopus, Web of Science/ARCI, or any of the other licensed publisher platforms.
Because registration mechanics are set and occasionally revised by EKB and by individual university IT/library units, always treat the specific screens, required documents, and verification timeline you encounter as authoritative over any external description — including this one.
How EKB relates to ORCID, Scopus Author ID, and other researcher identifiers
EKB is an access layer, not an identity layer: it determines whether a researcher can reach Scopus, Web of Science, and publisher content, but it does not itself issue a persistent researcher identifier. Egyptian researchers publishing internationally still need to maintain their own identifiers separately from their EKB account:
- An ORCID iD, which is not tied to any national licensing scheme and should be registered directly with ORCID.
- A Scopus Author ID, which Elsevier assigns automatically once a researcher has publications indexed in Scopus. See CASRAI’s guide on how to find or claim a Scopus Author ID for the mechanics, which apply the same way whether a researcher reaches Scopus through EKB or through an institutional subscription elsewhere.
- A Web of Science ResearcherID/Publons profile, which is likewise a separate Clarivate account layered on top of database access, including access reached through ARCI.
In practice, the recommended sequence for an Egyptian researcher is: register for EKB to obtain database access, use that access to locate and verify your existing publication record in Scopus and Web of Science, and separately register (or confirm) your ORCID iD so that your publication record stays portable if you move institutions or your EKB access status changes.
Common problems and how to resolve them
- Registration or verification email doesn’t arrive
- Confirm the email address entered matches the format expected for the selected category (institutional email for non-Egyptian affiliates, personal email tied to National ID for Egyptian citizens), and check with your university library, which in many cases acts as the first point of support for EKB access issues.
- Access works on campus but not off campus (or vice versa)
- Some EKB-linked institutional verifications are tied to campus IP ranges rather than to the EKB login itself. If off-campus access is needed, ask your library whether the institution provides a VPN or proxy specifically for EKB-linked resources.
- Unsure which database license covers a specific journal or article
- Database coverage through EKB reflects Elsevier’s and Clarivate’s underlying licensing agreements and can change; if a specific title appears inaccessible, check directly within the Scopus or Web of Science interface reached through EKB rather than assuming the whole platform is unavailable.
- Non-Egyptian researcher unsure if they qualify
- Eligibility for non-Egyptian faculty and students is generally tied to a current, verifiable affiliation with an Egyptian institution rather than citizenship — confirm the current process with that institution’s library, since verification steps have varied by university.
What institutional research-administration offices should do
For research offices and libraries at Egyptian institutions, supporting EKB access is largely a coordination task rather than a licensing one, since the underlying licenses are held nationally:
- Confirm which campus IP ranges are registered with EKB for institutional verification, and keep that registration current as network infrastructure changes.
- Maintain clear, current internal guidance (rather than relying on researchers to find EKB’s own instructions) for the specific registration path that applies to Egyptian staff, Egyptian students, and non-Egyptian affiliates, since these differ.
- Encourage researchers to pair EKB-enabled database access with their own persistent identifiers (ORCID iD, Scopus Author ID, Web of Science ResearcherID) so that publication records remain traceable independent of any future change in EKB’s licensing or the researcher’s institutional affiliation.
- Where the institution also reports research output nationally, be aware that Converis — the CRIS platform Clarivate deployed with EKB from 2019 — sits alongside EKB’s database-access function as part of Egypt’s national research-information infrastructure.
Frequently asked questions
Is the Egyptian Knowledge Bank free to use?
Yes. EKB is a nationally licensed platform, so there is no direct subscription cost for eligible Egyptian citizens or for faculty and students at affiliated institutions to register and use it.
Does EKB include Web of Science?
EKB provides access to Web of Science content through the Arabic Citation Index (ARCI), a regional citation index that Clarivate built with EKB and launched with an Arabic-language interface, alongside Web of Science’s broader indexed content.
Can non-Egyptian researchers use EKB?
Non-Egyptian faculty and students affiliated with an Egyptian institution can generally register, typically by verifying an institutional email address rather than a National ID; specific verification steps (including, at some institutions, an on-campus verification step) vary by university.
Does registering for EKB give me an ORCID iD or a Scopus Author ID automatically?
No. EKB provides database access only. An ORCID iD must be registered directly with ORCID, and a Scopus Author ID is assigned automatically by Elsevier once a researcher has indexed publications — both are independent of, and portable beyond, EKB access.
What is EKB login used for besides Scopus and Web of Science?
The same EKB credentials provide access to the platform’s full roster of licensed publisher and reference content, which spans academic publishers such as Springer, Taylor & Francis, SAGE, Cambridge University Press, and Oxford University Press, as well as general-reference resources.
For related national research-system guides, see CASRAI’s coverage of Egypt’s Science, Technology and Innovation Funding Authority (STDF) and the Egyptian Drug Authority clinical trial approval pathway.
