Blackwell Publishing

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Blackwell Publishing Ltd was a learned society publishing company based in Oxford, England. It was formed by the merger of two earlier Blackwell companies in 2001 and was taken over by John Wiley & Sons in 2007.

Blackwell Publishing was formed by the merger of two Oxford-based academic publishing companies, Blackwell Science and Blackwell Publishers, which had their origins in the nineteenth century Blackwell's family bookshop and publishing business. The merger created the world's leading learned society publisher, partnered with 665 academic and professional societies. Blackwell published over 805 journals and 650 text and reference books in 2006, across a wide range of academic, medical, and professional subjects, and had 990 staff members with offices in the US, UK, Australia, China, Denmark, Germany, Singapore and Japan.

The company identified its mission as an expert publisher as to create long-term partnerships with its clients that enhance learning, disseminate research, and improve the quality of professional practice. Its online full-text service, called Blackwell Synergy, was launched by Blackwell Science in 1999.

On 17 November 2006, John Wiley & Sons announced it had "entered into a definitive agreement to acquire" Blackwell Publishing.^[1] The acquisition was completed in February 2007, at a purchase price of £572 million. Blackwell Publishing was merged into Wiley's Global Scientific, Technical, and Medical business to create Wiley-Blackwell.^[2]