Elsevier
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Elsevier, the world's largest publisher of medical and scientific literature, forms part of the Reed Elsevier group. Based in Amsterdam, the company has substantial operations in the UK, USA and elsewhere.
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Origins
The Elzevir family operated as booksellers and publishers in the Netherlands. Its founder, Lodewijk Elzevir, (1542–1617) lived in Leiden and established the business in 1580.
As publishers of new work by Descartes, Galileo, and Grotius, they account for part of the reason for Bertrand Russell's comment that it "is impossible to exaggerate the importance of Holland in the seventeenth century, as the one country where there was freedom of speculation".
They also printed some of the earliest scientific journals and books, such as Gray's Anatomy, which is the first Anatomy book in the world.
Modern company
Founded in Rotterdam in 1880, the modern company took its name (in modernised form) from the historic House of Elzevir. Leading products include journals such as The Lancet, Cell and Tetrahedron Letters, books like Gray's Anatomy and the ScienceDirect collection of electronic journals. Others include the Trends series, and the Current Opinion series.
In recent years the company has posted impressive profits but has come under fire for charging high subscription rates for its publications. Some scientific journals cost as much as $5,000 per year, which far exceeds the typical rates charged by non-profit learned societies. As a result, Elsevier's has become a target of criticism from advocates of a switch to the so-called open-access publication model.
Arms fair controversy
In September 2005, the Lancet published an editorial criticising Elsevier for its ties to the international arms trade, in particular the London-based arms fair DSEi, saying
The Lancet's editors and the journal's International Advisory Board were unaware of Reed Elsevier's involvement with DSEi until a few weeks ago. We are deeply troubled by this connection to the arms trade. On behalf of our readers and contributors, we respectfully ask Reed Elsevier to divest itself of all business interests that threaten human, and especially civilian, health and well-being.
In the past, it has faced similar criticism from the Campaign Against Arms Trade and academic and blogger Tom Stafford.
External links
- Company website
- Early history of Elsevier family
- History of the modern company (PDF)
- BBC News: Reed criticised for 'arms link'
- CAAT's page on Reed Elsevier
- Tom Stafford's blog on Elsevier
- Elsevier Librarians Home
- Engineering Information
- Elsevier Health Sciences Asia
See also
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