is about the german academic publisher . for the american academic publisher see springer publishing . for other uses see springer disambiguation . springer science business media founded may 10 1842 ; 174 years ago 1842 05 10 as springer verlag founder julius springer country of origin germany headquarters location berlin heidelberg germany nonfiction topics science technology medicine business transport and architecture owner s springer nature official website www.springer.com springer science business media or springer is a global publishing company that publishes books e books and peer reviewed journals in science technical and medical stm publishing . 1 springer also hosts a number of scientific databases including springerlink springer protocols and springerimages . book publications include major reference works textbooks monographs and book series ; more than 168 000 titles are available as e books in 24 subject collections . 2 springer has major offices in berlin heidelberg dordrecht and new york city . on january 15 2015 holtzbrinck publishing group nature publishing group and springer science business media announced a merger . 3 the transaction was concluded in may 2015 and a new joint venture company springer nature was formed with holtzbrinck having the majority 53 % share and bc partners retaining 47 % interest in the company . 4 contents 1 history 2 electronic products 3 open access 4 selected imprints 5 journals 6 selected publications 7 see also 8 references 9 external links history edit julius springer founded springer verlag in berlin in 1842 and his son ferdinand springer grew it from a small firm of 4 employees into germany s second largest academic publisher with 65 staff in just 30 years . 5 6 in 1964 springer expanded its business internationally opening an office in new york city . offices in tokyo paris milan hong kong and delhi soon followed . the academic publishing company bertelsmannspringer was formed after bertelsmann bought a majority stake in springer verlag in 1999 . 5 7 the british investment groups cinven and candover bought bertelsmannspringer from bertelsmann in 2003 . 7 they merged the company in 2004 with the dutch publisher kluwer academic publishers which they bought from wolters kluwer in 2002 8 to form springer science business media . springer acquired the open access publisher biomed central in october 2008 for an undisclosed amount . in 2009 cinven and candover sold springer to two private equity firms eqt partners and government of singapore investment corporation . the closing of the sale was confirmed in february 2010 after the competition authorities in the usa and in europe approved the transfer . in 2011 springer acquired pharma marketing and publishing services from wolters kluwer . 9 in 2013 the london based private equity firm bc partners acquired a majority stake in springer from eqt and gic for 4.4 billion . 10 in 2014 it was revealed that springer had published 16 fake papers in its journals that had been computer generated using scigen . springer subsequently removed all the papers from these journals . ieee had also done the same thing by removing more than 100 fake papers from its conference proceedings . 11 in 2015 springer retracted 64 of the papers it had published after it was found that they had gone through a fraudulent peer review process . 12 electronic products edit springer provides its electronic book and journal content on its springerlink site which launched in 1996 . springerprotocols is home to a collection of protocols recipes which provide step by step instructions for conducting experiments in research labs . springerimages was launched in 2008 and offers a collection of currently 1.8 million images spanning science technology and medicine . springermaterials was launched in 2009 and is a platform for accessing the landolt b rnstein database of research and information on materials and their properties . authormapper is a free online tool for visualizing scientific research that enables document discovery based on author locations and geographic maps . the tool helps users explore patterns in scientific research identify literature trends discover collaborative relationships and locate experts in several scientific medical fields . open access edit for some of its journals springer does not require its authors to transfer their copyrights and allows them to decide whether their articles are published under an open access license or in the traditional restricted license model . 13 while open access publishing typically requires the author to pay a fee for copyright retention this fee is sometimes covered by a third party . for example a national institution in poland allows authors to publish in open access journals without incurring any personal cost but using public funds . 14 springer is a member of the open access scholarly publishers association . selected imprints edit apress biomed central chemistry central physmath central defunct birkh user verlag current medicine group humana press infochem key curriculum press kluwer academic publishers plenum publishers springeropen springer praxis books 15 springer spektrum journals edit main category springer science business media academic journals this section needs expansion . you can help by adding to it . august 2015 selected publications edit encyclopaedia of mathematics ergebnisse der mathematik und ihrer grenzgebiete book series graduate texts in mathematics book series grothendieck s s minaire de g om trie alg brique lecture notes in computer science springer series in surface sciences book series undergraduate texts in mathematics book series zentralblatt math see also edit list of publishers media concentration how many scigen papers in computer science references edit 648808z profile & executives springer science business media gmbh bloomberg . bloomberg.com . retrieved 14 november 2012 . search results within book . springerlink . springer . retrieved 1 march 2014 . holtzbrinck publishing group and bc partners announce agreement to merge majority of macmillan science and education with springer science business media jan. 15 2015 . caroline carpenter may 6 2015 . completed merger forms springer nature . the bookseller . retrieved july 8 2015 . a b history . springer science business media . chronology . springer science business media . a b poynder richard . bertelsmannspringer is sold to private equity firms . information today . may 27 2003 . kluwer academic publishers sold to venture capitalists . infotoday.com . retrieved 2014 08 15 . shah maulik . springer acquisition . heiskanen ville 2013 06 19 . bc partners to buy springer science for 4.4 billion . bloomberg.com . retrieved 2014 08 15 . noorden richard van 24 february 2014 . publishers withdraw more than 120 gibberish papers . nature news . retrieved 1 march 2014 . kaplan sarah august 18 2015 . major publisher retracts 64 scientific papers in fake peer review outbreak . washington post . retrieved 24 august 2015 . springer open choice . springer.com . retrieved 2014 08 15 . springer open choice for polish institutions . springer.com . retrieved 2014 08 15 . springer praxis books . springer science business media . retrieved may 1 2015 . external links edit official website mary h. munroe 2004 . springer timeline . the academic publishing industry a story of merger and acquisition via northern illinois university . retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title springer science % 2bbusiness media & oldid 741849119 categories springer science business mediaacademic publishing companiespan european media companiescomputer book publishing companiescommercial digital librariespublishing companies of germanypublishing companies established in 1842companies disestablished in 20152015 disestablishments in germany1842 establishments in prussiamultinational companies headquartered in germanymultinational publishing companieshidden 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