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Springer Acquires BioMed Central Group

In October 2008 Springer announced the acquisi- Central’s activities are complementary to what we tion of BioMed Central Group (BMC), the leading are doing. Additionally, this acquisition strengthens global publisher. Springer’s position in the life sciences and biomedi- cine, and will allow us to offer societies a greater 7 Find the full Press Release here Launched in May 2000 as an independent range of publishing options.” 7 Read an interview with Derk publishing house committed to providing free access Haank, CEO of Springer SBM, to peer-reviewed research in the biological and Matthew Cockerill, Publisher of BioMed Central on Open Access here medical sciences, BMC is the largest open access said: “We are very excited about this new phase of 7 http://www.biomedcentral.com provider in the world with over 180 peer-reviewed BioMed Central’s growth and development. Springer journals. BioMed Central’s flagship journals include has been notable among the major STM publishers Journal of , BMC Biology, BMC Medicine, for its willingness to experiment with open access Malaria Journal, BMC Bioinformatics and Genome publishing. BioMed Central has demonstrated that Biology. the open access business model can work, and we look forward to continued rapid growth as part Derk Haank, CEO of Springer, said: “This acquisi- of Springer. The support of our authors, journal tion reinforces the fact that we see open access editors and institutional customers has been vital publishing as a sustainable part of STM publishing, to BioMed Central’s success and we will continue to and not an ideological crusade. We have gained focus on offering the best possible service to these considerable positive experience since starting groups.” Springer Open Choice in 2004, and BioMed

Springer Signs Up For the TRANSFER Code of Practice Aiming for Uninterrupted Service When Journals Change Publishers

The movement of scholarly journals between dards that would apply whenever a journal is trans- publishers has been an established feature of the ferred from one publisher to another and encourage scholarly publishing landscape for many years. the industry to embrace these standards as a 7 For more information about As one of the founding members of TRANSFER, baseline level of quality and performance. The Code TRANSFER please click here Springer was amongst the first publishers signing up is concerned primarily with online content and aims for the TRANSFER Code of Practice in September to guarantee continued service to customers in situ- 2008. ations of journal transfer.

TRANSFER, established in 2006 under the auspices By signing up for the TRANSFER Code of Practice of the UK Serials Group, has been created to address Springer also hopes to provide an enhanced service the challenges caused by the growing number of to society partners when it comes to topics such as journal titles moving between publishers. The goal access to the journal, digital content files, subscrip- of the TRANSFER Code is to establish a set of stan- tion lists, and DOI issues, to name but a few.

Society Zone, Winter 2008, for more information visit springer.com/societies