Open Access News

News from the open access movement


Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Matt Cockerill on BMC acquisition

Matt Cockerill, BioMed Central acquired by Springer Science+Business Media, BioMed Central Blog, October 21, 2008.

Earlier this month, BioMed Central was acquired by Springer Science+Business Media, the world's second largest publisher of Scientific, Technical and Medical journals. Springer is absolutely committed to maintaining BioMed Central's policy of full open access to all research, and this acquisition is great news for open access, demonstrating that it is both a financially viable publishing model and an increasingly important part of mainstream scholarly publishing. ...

The acquisition of BioMed Central by Springer was approved by BioMed Central's Board of Trustees, who are charged with ensuring that any new owner of BioMed Central commits to permanently retain BioMed Central’s policy of unconditional open access to published research articles.

BioMed Central Limited will remain an autonomous operating unit within Springer Science+Business Media and it is 'business as usual' for BioMed Central staff and journals. All BioMed Central's titles are included in the acquisition, with the exception of Cases and Journal of Medical Case Reports which remain with Science Navigation Group. BioMed Central will continue to set its own article processing charges and there are no plans to increase charges as a result of the acquisition. ...

We’d like to take this opportunity to thank the authors, editors, peer-reviewers, librarians who have made BioMed Central’s success possible. We look forward to making the most of Springer's global reach and resources to improve our service and to help bring the benefits of open access publishing to an ever wider community.