Elsevier

Elsevier B.V. (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈɛlzəviːr]) is an academic publishing company that publishes medical and scientific literature. It is a part of the RELX Group (known until 2015 as Reed Elsevier). Based in Amsterdam, the company has operations in the UK, US, Mexico, Brazil, Spain, Germany, and elsewhere.

Leading products include journals such as The Lancet and Cell, books such as Gray's Anatomy, the ScienceDirect collection of electronic journals, the Trends and Current Opinion series of journals, and the online citation database Scopus.

Elsevier annually publishes approximately 350,000 articles a year in 2,000 journals. Its archives contain over 13 million documents. Total yearly downloads amount to 750 million.

In 2014, Elsevier reported a profit margin of approximately 37% on revenues of £2.48 billion. Elsevier's high profit margins, and especially its copyright practices have subjected it to heavy criticism by researchers.

History

Elsevier took its name from the Dutch publishing house Elzevir, which, however, had no connection with the present company. 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.

Elsevier (magazine)

Elsevier is a Dutch weekly news magazine. With a circulation of over 86,000 copies as of 2015, it is the Netherlands' most popular news magazine. Its chief editor is Arendo Joustra.

Elsevier focuses mainly on politics, international affairs and business. In terms of scope of articles it is best comparable to Germany's Focus, Belgium's Knack or America's Time Magazine. Like Time Magazine, Elsevier runs a yearly coverstory about a Person of the Year. The magazine is conventionally considered to be one of the most influential written media in the Dutch language area. Views expressed are generally conservative right wing.

History and profile

The predecessor of the magazine, Elsevier's Geïllustreerd Maandschrift (Elsevier's Illustrated Monthly), was first issued in January 1891 and was modelled after Harper's Magazine. It was published by J.G. Robbers and his Elsevier company, which had been founded in 1880 and took its name from the famous (but unrelated) Elzevir family of the 16th to 18th centuries. In 1940, the magazine was prohibited by the German authorities, who occupied the Netherlands at the time, and the last issue of the magazine was issued in December that year.