Oxford University Press (OUP) is set to acquire Karger Publishers, a publisher of scientific and medical journals. Under the name Oxford Journals, OUP currently publishes more than 500 scientific journals. With the acquisition of Karger, that number will rise to over 600.
Karger was founded in 1890 in Berlin, before relocating to Basel in northwest Switzerland. The largely specialist company published Freud’s influential collected lectures in German, though nowadays most of the journals are published in English. Beyond journals, Karger has published over 9,000 books on medicine.
The Chair of Karger Publishers, Gabriella Karger, said that after an extensive search, “Oxford University Press represents the best possible choice” for Karger’s future. In a nod to OUP’s long record of operation, she said that “Karger becomes part of a publishing house that has even a longer history”.
Nigel Portwood, the CEO of OUP, said that the companies’ “shared focus on quality and scholarly integrity offer a strong foundation from which we can continue to serve researchers in medicine and health science far into the future”.
Oxford’s acquisition of Karger comes at the tail-end of significant consolidation in the academic journal market over the past three decades. In 2000, less than 40% of articles in science journals were published by the five largest academic publishers. By 2024, that number had climbed to over 60%.
This global overhaul has coincided with significant initiatives in the academic world for open access science publishing. Among these initiatives is Plan S, backed by the European Union (EU), World Health Organisation (WHO), and a large number of public and private research organisations, including UK Research and Innovation, the public body in charge of research funding. Plan S mandates scientists who benefit from public research organisations to publish in open access journals.
Critics of Plan S have argued that open access policies benefit large publishers and have been a major driver of consolidation in the academic journal market. The University of Oxford, representing OUP, came out in “broad” support of Plan S guidelines when they were first announced, but disagreed with some of the plan’s most significant provisions.
 is set to acquire Karger Publishers, a publisher of scientific and medical journals. Under the name Oxford Journals, OUP currently publishes more than 500 scientific journals. With the acquisition of Karger, that number will rise to over 600.){kind=link}