Wolters Kluwer Health Acquires Medknow

Wolters Kluwer Health, a global publisher of medical, nursing and allied health information has acquired Mumbai-based scientific, technical and medical (STM) journal publishing house Medknow that is also one of the largest open access publishers in the world, for an undisclosed amount.

Medknow also has presence in e-publishing business straddling electronic manuscript system and other areas.

The acquisition will broaden Wolters Kluwer Health's medical research presence in some key markets and help in its efforts to increase locally written content and incorporate more open access platforms into its business model.

For Wolters Kluwer Health customers, the deal means an easier access to medical content in more markets around the world.

Medknow's journals will join an extensive portfolio of nearly 300 practitioner journals, including those published by Wolters Kluwer Health's Lippincott Williams & Wilkins brand and additional journals made available through society partnerships.

"Research is changing in the developing world with clinicians and researchers looking for more access to locally-written content that is peer-reviewed and accessible via open platforms," said Karen Abramson, president and chief executive officer of Wolters Kluwer Health, Medical Research.

"Our acquisition of Medknow aligns with our strategy of continuing to invest in providing the latest, most trusted information to our customers around the world to help them fuel discoveries and enhance patient care," he explained.

Incorporated in 1977, Medknow has a strong portfolio of more than 155 print+online journals. It follows a "fee-less-free" model of open access publishing and providing free access to the electronic editions of the journals majority of which do not charge the author or author's institution for submission, processing or publication of the articles.

Apart from a strong market share among journals published in India, it has a growing presence in the Asia-Pacific and Middle East and Africa regions.

Besides print and electronic journal content, the company also provides an electronic peer-review system for authors and editors.

MedKnow also boasts tie-ups with some major bibliographic agencies, subscription agents, internet search engines and secondary aggregating agencies.