World publishers of academic literature will not operate in russia and belarus

Pearson, the world’s largest publishers of educational literature, stopped its activity in russia and belarus, other academic publishing houses are refusing to work in those countries as well. This was reported by The Bookseller.

Pearson makes it a priority to support Ukrainian members of its team and Ukrainians in general. The publisher stops selling and delivering its books and products in russia and belarus, and promises to donate £ 1 million to funds struggling with the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine.

The publisher said: «We are heartbroken and deeply concerned about Russia’s violence against Ukraine. Our priority remains to support Ukrainian workers and their families. Pearson is suspending the sale and delivery of our products and services in both Russia and Belarus».

The scientific company Clarivate Analytics, which owns the first scientometric database Web of Science Core Collection, ProQuest platform and other technology projects, closes its office in russia and stops evaluating and verifying any scientific publications uploaded from russia and belarus.

The company said that commercial activities in russia will cease in the coming weeks.

Oxford University Press has imposed restrictions on certain legal entities and individuals in russia, belarus and some areas of Ukraine, as well as conducted individual inspections of proposed or uncompleted transactions in these countries. These measures do not preclude access to Oxford University Press materials, except in the case of persons subject to individual sanctions.

The international book publishing house of academic literature, Taylor & Francis, is also focusing its efforts on Ukraine: it has made free access to its databases for Ukrainian scientists and facilitated the submission of scientific papers by Ukrainian scientists. In russia and belarus, it will no longer be possible to buy access to the Routledge online megabase, but scientists from countries conducting armed aggression against Ukraine will be able to submit articles.

Eric Merkel-Sobotta, Marketing Director of the publishing house, said: «Unless further sanctions are required, we do not intend to prevent scientists in any region from gaining access to the knowledge we publish, and we continue to support any contribution to the development of knowledge».

Springer Nature and its parent company, Holtzbrinck Publishing Group, have already donated € 1.5 million to help refugees from Ukraine, but continue to process russian and belarusian research articles under the COPE brand.

Springer Nature said: «These include authors who find themselves in sanctioned territories for reasons beyond their control, and who, if they can connect with the larger community, can still make a positive contribution. That is why we continue to accept and evaluate manuscripts from Russian authors in an independent way, as set out in the COPE recommendations».

We would like to remind you that the world’s largest publishers, Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster, as well as the only real book distributor in the UK, Gardners, have stopped working with Russian publishing houses. The British literary agency, Curtis Brown, and the publishing houses, Pan Macmillan and Canongate, have also suspended cooperation with russian publishers.

In addition, about 100 world organizations have abandoned cultural cooperation with russia after a full-out attack against Ukraine.