Librarians Fear Elsevier Purchase of Pergamon

An agreement by Elsevier Science Publishers, the world’s largest publisher of scientific journals, to acquire Pergamon Press, which publishes more than 400 scientific journals, has led to fear among some librarians, who say the move may raise the already skyrocketing prices of journals.

“It’s an extremely serious situation,” said Ann Okerson, director of the office of scientific and academic publishing for the Association of Research Libraries. She said the merger of the two largest scientific-journal publishing houses, which already charge much higher prices than not-for-profit publishers, could lead to a near-monopoly of the industry, further increasing journal prices.

Karen Hunter, vice-president of Elsevier’s science division, which publishes about 650 journals and 750 monographs each year, said the acquisition of Pergamon would not lead to any price increases, at least in the immediate future.

“It’s business as usual,” she said. “In the short term, nothing changes.” Over the long term, she added, the company hopes to use its larger base of journals to spread the costs of starting up electronic versions of print journals.

She said Elsevier was sending letters explaining the company’s intentions to librarians and to scholars who publish in its journals.