Johns Hopkins University Press, one of the oldest and most respected university-based publishers in the United States, will welcome biological science aggregator BioOne into its organization, a move meant to expand future opportunities and support sustainable nonprofit scholarly publishing.
BioOne hosts more than 200 esteemed bioscience journals and hundreds of books in a digital collection used by researchers and students around the world. By joining Hopkins Press, it will benefit from synergies with Project MUSE, the widely used online collection of more than 800 journals and 100,000 books in the humanities and social sciences.
Together, Hopkins Press and BioOne aim to enhance the impact of high-quality, peer-reviewed research at a time when reliable information in more important than ever.
"We are thrilled to welcome BioOne to Hopkins Press," said Barbara Kline Pope, executive director of Hopkins Press. "So often we talk about the power of mission-driven scholarly organizations coming together to make a bigger impact. Now we are doing just that, and we couldn't be more excited."
Publishing is rapidly evolving, marked by increased consolidation among for-profit companies and the challenges and promises of artificial intelligence. As nonprofits and early adopters of Subscribe to Open, an equitable open access model for journals, both organizations are committed to advancing transparent, innovative solutions that bolster scholarly publishing.
Launched at the dawn of online scholarly publishing several decades ago, Hopkins Press's Project MUSE and BioOne were both born out of the need to better serve a vibrant community of publishers, scientific and scholarly societies, libraries, researchers, and students.
"For 25 years, BioOne has supported the visibility, independence, and sustainability of global societies and research organizations publishing across the biosciences," said Lauren Kane, CEO of BioOne. "This integration will allow BioOne to expand and extend this support far into the future, enabling new services, optimizing infrastructure, and sustaining revenue for our nonprofit community. Hopkins Press shares BioOne's values and vision for a thriving, independent scholarly ecosystem, making them an ideal partner in this next phase of growth."
BioOne's flagship aggregation of biological, ecological, and environmental sciences journals and books, BioOne Complete, will continue as a discrete product and brand within Hopkins Press.
All current commitments to BioOne's community of participating publishers and supporting libraries will remain in place.
By integrating BioOne, Hopkins Press will broaden its reach into the life sciences. In addition to Project MUSE, the Press includes books and journals publishing programs as well as a book distribution business.
The deal is expected to close on Aug. 31, subject to final governance and legal approvals.
