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Scholarly Communication:

Springer and Kluwer Subscriptions

In April 2003, Kluwer Academic Publishers and then the Bertelsmann Springer Group were taken over by Cinven and Candover, a British venture capital firm.  In the spring of 2004, the two companies were merged under the name Springer Science + Business Media. This merger represents a significant step in the on-going consolidation of the scholarly journals publishing industry. As a result of it Springer became the second largest academic publisher, with a journals list of approximately 1250 titles, and with revenues estimated to be more than 800 million euros per year.

Library Subscriptions

At the time of the merger, Kluwer published approximately 750 titles, and, within the terms of a “package deal,” the Libraries had offered access to the entire list to the MIT community for the previous two years.  Springer published approximately 500 titles.  The Libraries subscribed to approximately 140 of these on an individual basis before the merger, and received free electronic access to those titles for the most recent year.  After the merger, the publisher no longer provided this free electronic access. The Libraries allocated additional funding for the calendar year 2005 to provide electronic access to all of Springer titles on a trial basis, resulting in a combined Kluwer/Springer list of approximately 1250 titles.

The Libraries are not able to continue subscribing to this entire Springer (and formerly Kluwer) list on an on-going basis.  To do so would jeopardize the purchase of equally valuable titles from other publishers.  However, the one-year trial provided important use data, enabling librarians to assess the relative value of the individual titles.

Changes for 2006

With the beginning of 2006, we have reduced our subscriptions to a selection of Springer (and formerly Kluwer) titles that are the most used or that for other reasons are deemed to be highly valuable to the interests of MIT students, faculty and researchers.   If we have omitted a title that you believe to be of primary interest to the MIT community, please contact the appropriate subject specialist to request a reconsideration of the decision.