Journal wars
Big publishers are tightening their grip on the lucrative science-journal market
WHEN American antitrust officials gave the go-ahead on May 7th to Reed Elsevier, an Anglo-Dutch publishing giant, to buy Harcourt General, an American publisher, for $4.5 billion, the relief at Reed was as palpable as the dismay among scientists. The approval of the acquisition, announced last year, tightens Reed's grip on the science-journal market at a time when publishers of such journals face not only fierce denunciation by academics, but serious efforts to undermine their business.
This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the headline “Journal wars”
From the May 12th 2001 edition
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