Taylor & Francis
Richard Taylor opened his first publishing house in 1798. He focused on scientific and technical subjects like agriculture, chemistry, and engineering. William Francis joined Taylor's business in 1852 to form a new partnership. Their combined firm published the Philosophical Magazine alongside works on law and mathematics. Richard Taunton Francis became the sole partner from 1917 until his death in 1930. The company grew steadily through the early twentieth century before expanding its scope significantly.
Taylor & Francis launched Wykeham Publications in 1965 to begin book publishing operations. They acquired Hemisphere Publishing in 1988 and renamed themselves Taylor & Francis Group. The company went public on the London Stock Exchange in 1998. That same year they purchased their rival Routledge for ninety million pounds. A merger with Informa occurred in 2004 creating T&F Informa. The group later moved headquarters to Milton Park in Oxfordshire after closing the historic Routledge office at New Fetter Lane. In 2017 they sold Garland Science assets to W.W. Norton and ceased using that brand name.
Informa PLC reported in 2018 that Taylor & Francis publishes over two thousand seven hundred journals annually. The company produces about seven thousand new books each year while maintaining a backlist of one hundred forty thousand titles. Approximately eighteen hundred employees work across at least eighteen offices worldwide. Headquarters sit in Milton Park, Abingdon-on-Thames with additional locations in Stockholm, Leiden, New York City, and Singapore. The Routledge imprint handles humanities and social sciences while CRC Press covers science and technology. This division accounted for thirty point two percent of group revenue in 2017.
The board of the Journal of Library Administration resigned entirely in 2013 due to disputes over author licensing agreements. Critical Reviews in Toxicology faced accusations from the Center for Public Integrity regarding junk science brokerages involving Monsanto. Taylor & Francis removed an editor-in-chief from the International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health in 2017 after he accepted articles critical of corporate interests. They replaced him with a corporate consultant without consulting the editorial board. Six T&F journals were suspended from Journal Citation Reports in 2020 following unusual self-citation levels detected by Clarivate analytics.
Lucina Uddin sued Taylor & Francis in September 2024 alongside five other academic publishers. The class-action lawsuit alleges violations of antitrust law through manuscript acquisition agreements. Scholars claim these publishers deny payment for peer review services they provide voluntarily. The Accelerated Publication service allows scientists to expedite reviews for seven thousand dollars. Critics argue this creates a pay-to-publish dynamic that undermines academic integrity. The European Mathematical Society condemned a retraction decision made against Iranian authors in December 2018 before reversing course.
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Common questions
When did Richard Taylor open his first publishing house?
Richard Taylor opened his first publishing house in 1798. He focused on scientific and technical subjects like agriculture, chemistry, and engineering.
Who joined Richard Taylor to form the partnership that became Taylor & Francis Group?
William Francis joined Taylor's business in 1852 to form a new partnership. Their combined firm published the Philosophical Magazine alongside works on law and mathematics.
Where is the headquarters of Taylor & Francis located today?
Headquarters sit in Milton Park, Abingdon-on-Thames with additional locations in Stockholm, Leiden, New York City, and Singapore. The company moved its headquarters to Milton Park after closing the historic Routledge office at New Fetter Lane.
How many journals does Taylor & Francis publish annually according to Informa PLC reports from 2018?
Informa PLC reported in 2018 that Taylor & Francis publishes over two thousand seven hundred journals annually. The company produces about seven thousand new books each year while maintaining a backlist of one hundred forty thousand titles.
Why were six Taylor & Francis journals suspended from Journal Citation Reports in 2020?
Six T&F journals were suspended from Journal Citation Reports in 2020 following unusual self-citation levels detected by Clarivate analytics. This suspension followed controversies involving editors accepting articles critical of corporate interests.