| Parent company | Elsevier |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1948; 77 years ago (1948) |
| Founders | Robert Maxwell,Paul Rosbaud |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Headquarters location | Oxford |
| Nonfiction topics | Science and Medicine |
Pergamon Press was anOxford-based publishing house, founded byPaul Rosbaud andRobert Maxwell, that published scientific and medical books and journals. Originally calledButterworth-Springer, it is now animprint ofElsevier.
The core company, Butterworth-Springer, started in 1948 to bring the "Springer know-how and techniques of aggressive publishing in science"[1] toBritain.Paul Rosbaud was the man with the knowledge. When Maxwell acquired the company in 1951, Rosbaud held a one-quarter share.[1] They changed the house name to Pergamon Press, using alogo that was a reproduction of a Greek coin fromPergamon. Maxwell and Rosbaud worked together growing the company until May 1956, when, according to Joe Haines, Rosbaud was sacked.
When Pergamon Press started it had only six serials and two books. Initially the company headquarters was inFitzroy Square inWest End of London. In 1959, the company moved intoHeadington Hill Hall, a country home rented from the city of Oxford.
In 1960, Brian Cox joined Pergamon Press as subscription manager. After the founders' deaths, Cox has become the primary witness to the phenomenal rise of Pergamon Press in the Science, Technology, and Medicine (STM) sector of publishing. The 59 Pergamonacademic journals in 1960 became 418 journals in 1992. Cox recalls that in the process some 700 were launched, many transmogrifying rather than ceasing. Cox says "The secret of Pergamon's success was to publish a large number of journals, so that the established titles could support the new ones during their formative years".[2]
In 1962, Pergamon Press started the series calledThe Commonwealth and International Library of Sciences, Technology, Engineering, and Liberal Studies. By 1970, this series had 1000 titles. Brian Cox says that in all, Pergamon published 7,000 monographs for various authors.[2]
In 1964, Pergamon Press became apublic company. With its growth andexport performance, the company was a recipient of one of theQueen's Awards for Enterprise in 1966. That year saw construction of a new office block and warehouse at Headington Hill. Pergamon ventured to produce anEncyclopaedic Dictionary of Physics, in nine volumes and four supplements in the decade from 1961.
In 1969, Maxwell lost control of Pergamon and was ejected from the board.[3] An inquiry by theDepartment of Trade and Industry (DTI) under the Takeover Code of the time reported in mid-1971:[4] "We regret having to conclude that, notwithstanding Mr Maxwell's acknowledged abilities and energy, he is not in our opinion a person who can be relied on to exercise proper stewardship of a publicly quoted company." It was found that Maxwell had contrived to maximise Pergamon's share price through transactions between his private family companies.[5] Maxwell reacquired Pergamon in 1974 after borrowing funds.[6]
Pergamon continued withInternational Encyclopedias in biotechnology, chemistry, education, engineering, entomology, linguistics, materials science, and pharmacology and toxicology. The education volume won theDartmouth Medal from theAmerican Library Association in 1986 as the best reference work of the year.[2]
Pergamon also has offices inElmsford, New York, in the United States.
Pergamon is the publisher of several works of theClub of Rome, such asBeyond the Age of Waste,Energy, the Countdown,No Limits to Learning,Towards more Effective Societies,Dialogue of Wealth and Welfare andMicroelectronics and Society.
In 2017Stephen Buranyi described Maxwell's approach in theGuardian:[7]
Maxwell insisted on grand titles – "International Journal of" was a favourite prefix. Peter Ashby, a former vice president at Pergamon, described this to me as a "PR trick", but it also reflected a deep understanding of how science, and society's attitude to science, had changed. Collaborating and getting your work seen on the international stage was becoming a new form of prestige for researchers, and in many cases Maxwell had the market cornered before anyone else realised it existed.[7]
The consequences of Pergamon Press business strategies during this period has been described byMark W. Neff in the academic journalIssues in Science and Technology:[8]
Between 1959 and 1965, Pergamon grew from 40 titles to 150. Whereas scientific norms at the time viewed scientific publishing as a public good that should not be subject to profit motives, Maxwell understood that scientific publishing was a market unlike others because there was an almost ceaseless growth of demand, and free labour. Scientists would pressure their institutional libraries to secure access to any serious journal publishing work relevant to their own.[8]
Maxwell sold Pergamon Press toacademic publishing giant Elsevier in March 1991 for £440 million; the funds were used to repay the large debt taken on by Maxwell in taking control ofNew York Daily News.[9][10]
Maxwell retained Pergamon's US books (which became part of sister companyMacmillan Inc.), theChess andBridge magazines, and some smaller properties.[11] The imprint "Pergamon Press" continues to be used to identify journals now published by Elsevier.
| Elsevier |
| ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LexisNexis |
| ||||||
| RX |
| ||||||
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
