News: Academic Publishing Weekly

Clarivate makes a strategic divestment, Hachette employees form a union, and the scholarly community responds to the OMB

Posted on July 10, 2026 in News

Clarivate Divests and Discontinues

Following Springer Nature’s sale of its consumer brands in June, Clarivate announced the divestment of Life Sciences & Healthcare (“LS&H”) to Altaris LLC, an investment firm specializing in healthcare companies. The $600 million deal signals Clarivate’s strategic shift towards “intelligence solutions, workflow software and tech-enabled services for its leading Academia & Government (“A&G”) and Intellectual Property (“IP”) segments.” Chief Executive Officer of Clarivate Matti Shem Tov stated that due to the deal, Clarivate “will have a stronger financial profile and more focused portfolio, making it well positioned as a leader in the knowledge and innovation economy and poised to drive sustained value for shareholders, customers and employees.” In other Clarivate news, the company announced that it will stop the publication of Research Professional News by the end of the year. The decision again reflects Clarivate’s “strategic focus on its core research intelligence and workflow businesses.”

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Acquisitions: MDPI, AUP, and SPIE

First up, MDPI acquired three Swiss journals from publisher Editores Medicorum Helveticorum (EMH). The three journals—Swiss Archives of Neurology, Psychiatry and Psychotherapy (SANPP), Primary and Hospital Care (PHC), and Cardiovascular Medicine—will be freely available via the open access publisher. Moving right along, Amsterdam University Press (AUP) announced the acquisition of the Australian ATF Press Publishing Group. An independent academic publisher, ATF Press’s backlist includes more than 400 titles in the humanities and social sciences. The deal indicates AUP’s expansion of the theology, religious studies, and social ethics disciplines. Finally, the international society for optics and photonics, or SPIE, acquired the international open knowledge platform The Lens. The platform connects research, patents, and analytics tools, thereby “improving access to patent information and strengthening connections between scientific research and innovation” for SPIE members.

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Open Access, Science, and Metadata

Wiley and the Big Ten Academic Alliance (BTAA) signed an OA agreement, allowing researchers at BTAA institutions to openly publish in Wiley’s journals and to gain “full read access to Wiley’s entire journal portfolio.” The deal includes 16 flagship BTAA universities and is in effect through the end of 2027. UNESCO launched the open-source Open Science Platform. Built on open technologies, the platform intends to expand access to research supported by UNESCO and “help countries monitor progress towards implementing the UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science.” Finally, the ISSN International Centre and the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) have agreed to a new Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to bolster the exchange of metadata and increase the visibility of open materials. The partnership utilizes the ISSN Portal and DOAJ metadata, and strengthens the relationship between the two organizations that began in 2003.

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The Scholarly Community Responds to the OMB

The recent proposal by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for Federal Financial Assistance has received 90,000 public comments due to a campaign organized by the scientific community, Inside Higher Ed reports. In case you missed it, the proposal includes provisions like changing the deciders of grant recipients from peer reviewers to political appointees and making it easier to pull funding from projects, even those already in progress. IHE summarizes the coordinated response from the academic world, context surrounding the proposal, and how it would impact international collaboration, research output, and efficiencies. The comment period for the proposal remains open until July 13. The Scholarly Kitchen staff also joined the discussion on the proposal with several articles out this week explaining the rule changes and their potential effects on the scholarly community.

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Time for AI News

Digital Science announced an AI analytics platform created to “think” like a researcher. Dimensions Research Strategy, built on Dimensions data, is intended for leadership at research institutions “who need verifiable intelligence they can act on with confidence,” focusing particularly on benchmarking and expertise. Next up, Elena Vicario, Director of Research Integrity at Frontiers, made an argument for allowing AI in peer review. The central point of Vicario’s perspective is that peer reviewers are overworked and probably using AI regardless, necessitating parameters for how AI “can appropriately support peer review, where it must be constrained, and how human accountability is preserved throughout.” Last, Choice and Clarivate announced a follow-up to last year’s AI micro-course. The three new modules expand on AI literacy skills, pedagogy, and adoption in higher education. You can register for the course here.

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Hachette Says Yes to Union, Books by ACLS Fellows, and the G20 Research Scorecard

The employees at Hachette voted to unionize. The final count came out to 388 to 130, forming the Hachette Workers Coalition (HWC). The union represents 600 “union-eligible remote and NYC-based staff,” making it the “largest union in trade publishing history.” If you’re keeping track, this makes Hachette the second of the Big Five trade publishers to unionize, joining HarperCollins. Next, the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) highlighted books published by ACLS fellows and grantees in 2026 (so far). The 14 titles include subjects in history, film, and more, published by several university presses. Clarivate published its annual G20 research and innovation scorecard, “a comprehensive, data-driven view of the research and innovation capabilities of G20 member nations.” Looking at citation impact, research output, and collaboration, the 2026 scorecard revealed a “gradual softening” of the US’s research impact in the past decade. In addition, Mainland China has exceeded one million annual papers, and India’s research output doubled in the last 10 years, demonstrating its stature as a “major global contributor.”

Independent Press Top 5 Bestsellers: Nonfiction
The American Booksellers Association and the Independent Publishers Caucus recently collaborated on an independent bestsellers list, which includes books from independent presses and sold in indie bookshops. Below are the top five nonfiction titles this week. Find this week’s full list of fiction and nonfiction independent bestsellers.

1. Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer (Milkweed Editions)
2. The Book of Birds by Robert Macfarlane, Jackie Morris (W. W. Norton & Company)
3. A Resistance History of the United States by Tad Stoermer (Steerforth)
4. The Gales of November by John U. Bacon (Liveright)
5. Is a River Alive? by Robert Macfarlane (W. W. Norton & Company)

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