Web Site Documents Academic Publishing Mergers

A web site, commissioned by ARL and the Information Access Alliance, documents mergers and acquisitions in academic publishing. "The Academic Publishing Industry: A Story of Merger and Acquisition" was developed by Mary H. Munroe, Associate Dean, Collections and Technical Services at Northern Illinois University. A bibliography is included.

Some 12 companies, which are or have recently produced scholarly journals and books, are profiled here. They come from Europe and North America, and they are all multinational corporations. I have generally tracked only English language materials, since the bulk of scholarly information is now produced in English.

The material listed here was gathered from public sources – news accounts, directory listings, company histories, and the websites of the companies. In general, where there was a discrepancy between accounts, I have used either the official company website or the most authoritative source. The prices of the mergers and acquisitions are not always available. If a price is reported in any of the sources I have used, I have included it.

Posted by Tom on June 03, 2004