Feature Articles

Springer-Verlag and Kluwer Academic Publishers merge to form Springer
by Nat Bruning, Manager, Publisher Relations Group

The merger announced in February between the two scientific publishing companies Springer-Verlag and Kluwer Academic Publishers has largely been completed. Effective July 1, 2004, the two companies operate under the joint Springer brand, with all new products published from July 2004 onward carrying the new Springer name and logo. The Kluwer Academic Publishers name and logo will continue to exist alongside Springer until KAP products and services are no longer available.

As a result of the merger, Springer is now the second largest supplier of scientific literature in the world - second to Reed Elsevier. Its product offering includes 1,250 journals and some 3,500 new book titles a year, focusing on clinical medicine, biomedicine and the life sciences, economics and statistics, physics and engineering sciences, mathematics, computer science, social sciences, and the humanities.

One of the first services developed jointly by the two publishing houses is "Springer Open Choice", an additional publication model for journal authors under which the author instead of the reader can assume the costs of quality and service in the publishing process. The full text version can be read and downloaded free of charge via the online SpringerLink service without any access restrictions. Springer developed this service in response to the demands of researchers and publicly funded research communities who have advocated for unlimited access to scientific content and who are in a position to pay for the service.

London based venture capital firms, Candover and Civen, bought Kluwer Academic Publishers from Dutch publishers Wolters Kluwer in November 2002. The following May 2003, they purchased BertelsmannSpringer from the German media giant, Bertelsmann AG setting the stage for the eventual merger of the two publishing groups. The new Springer is part of the specialist publishing group Springer Science + Business Media which owns 70 companies worldwide producing both scientific literature and specialist information for the Business to Business sector.

While the Kluwer Academic Publishers name will not be used on forthcoming publications, their editorial department will continue to produce content under the imprint of Springer. Libraries can continue to expect new titles from Springer which will include the imprints of Copernicus, Steinkopff, Physica and Telos. Springer will continue to distribute books for the American Institute of Physics, Apress, friends of ED, Birkhauser, Key Curriculum, the Royal Society of Chemistry, Lavoisier-Intercept, Praxis, Darmstadt, and Vieweg.