The Academic Publishing Industry: A Story of Merger and Acquisition

Though the web site, The Academic Publishing Industry: A Story of Merger and Acquisition, has been up for several years, it is still a very informative account in time-line format of a major trend among publishers, namely the tendency for mergers and acquisitions. "A major finding of this research has been how many of the major imprints bought by academic librarians all over the world are owned by the same company. . . . The story is sobering." A clear message is that as publisher mergers and acquisitions increase, so do the cost of their journals and books. The author, Mary H. Munroe, updated the site in December, 2006.