These early 20th-century acquisitions brought with them lists of notable scholarly titles, and from 1912 onward, the company became increasingly concentrated in the academic and scholarly publishing business under the imprint "Kegan Paul Trench Trubner", as well as reference, fiction and mysticism. In 1947, George Routledge and Sons finally merged with Kegan Paul Trench Trubner (the umlaut had been quietly dropped in the First World War) under the name of Routledge & Kegan Paul.[17] Using C. K. Ogden and later Karl Mannheim as advisers the company was soon particularly known for its titles in philosophy, psychology and the social sciences.
In 1985, Routledge & Kegan Paul joined with Associated Book Publishers (ABP),[18] which was later acquired by International Thomson in 1987. Under Thomson's ownership, Routledge's name and operations were retained, with the additions of backlists from Methuen, Tavistock Publications, Croom Helm and Unwin Hyman.[19] In 1996, a management buyout financed by the European private equity firm Cinven saw Routledge operating as an independent company once again. In 1997, Cinven acquired journals publisher Carfax and book publisher Spon.[20] In 1998, Cinven and Routledge's directors accepted a deal for Routledge's acquisition by Taylor & Francis Group (T&F), with the Routledge name being retained as an imprint and subdivision.[21][6]
In 2004, T&F became a division within Informa plc after a merger. Routledge continues as a primary publishing unit and imprint within Informa's 'academic publishing' division, publishing academic humanities and social science books, journals, reference works and digital products. Routledge has grown considerably as a result of organic growth and acquisitions of other publishing companies and other publishers' titles by its parent company.[22][23][24] Humanities and social sciences titles acquired by T&F from other publishers are rebranded under the Routledge imprint.[23]
Routledge is a signatory of the SDG Publishers Compact,[25][26] and has taken steps to support the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These include achieving CarbonNeutral publication certification for their print books and journals, under the Natural Capital Partners' CarbonNeutral Protocol.[27]
People
The English publisher Fredric Warburg was a commissioning editor at Routledge during the early 20th century. Novelist Nina Stibbe, author of Love, Nina, worked at the company as a commissioning editor in the 1990s.[28]Cultural studies editor William Germano served as vice-president and publishing director for two decades before becoming dean of the humanities at Cooper Union.[29]
Routledge has been criticised for a pricing structure which "will limit readership to the privileged few", as opposed to options for open access offered by DOAJ, Unpaywall, and DOAB.[31]
Reference works
Taylor and Francis closed down the Routledge print encyclopaedia division in 2006. Some of its publications were:
Many of Routledge's reference works are published in print and electronic formats as Routledge Handbooks and have their own dedicated website: Routledge Handbooks Online.[36] The company also publishes several online encyclopedias and collections of digital content such as Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy,[32]Routledge Encyclopedia of Modernism,[37] Routledge Performance Archive,[38] and South Asia Archive.[39]
↑"Managing Director, Humanities & Social Science Books, Taylor & Francis Group". Informa. Archived from the original on 14 February 2016. Retrieved 24 January 2016.
↑Upton, Clive; Kretzschmar, William A. Jr. (2017). The Routledge Dictionary of Pronunciation for Current English (2nded.). Routledge. p.1164. ISBN978-1-138-12566-7.
↑"About Us – Routledge". Archived from the original on 6 June 2023. Retrieved 1 July 2023.
↑"Publishing With Us – Routledge". Taylor & Francis Group. 2016. Archived from the original on 21 July 2019. Retrieved 24 January 2016.
↑"Outsell HSS Market Size Share Forecast"(PDF). Archived from the original(PDF) on 5 May 2016. Retrieved 22 December 2016.
↑"Academic Publishing". Archived from the original on 10 September 2017. Retrieved 22 December 2016.
↑"T&F Group Global Offices". 22 December 2016. Archived from the original on 28 September 2018.
12"Yellowbacks: III – Routledge's Railway Library". Archived from the original on 16 February 2015. Retrieved 15 February 2015.
12Wagner, David Paul. "Routledge's Railway Library (George Routledge)". Book Series List. Publishing History. Archived from the original on 19 March 2022. Retrieved 10 August 2019.
↑"UCL Library Services: Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd Archives – 1850–1984". Archived from the original on 16 February 2015. Retrieved 15 February 2015.
↑Barnes, James J.; Barnes, Patience P. (2004). "Routledge, George". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (onlineed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/24184.(Subscription, Wikipedia Library access or UK public library membership required.)
↑"Taylor and Francis Informa". ketupa.net. Archived from the original on 9 April 2016. Retrieved 16 February 2015.
↑"Routledge, George". Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 49. Archived from the original on 14 September 2015. Retrieved 10 November 2015– via Wikisource.
↑"PUBLISHER: Kegan Paul, Trench & Company; Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Company, London". The Lucile Project. University of Iowa. Archived from the original on 6 November 2016. Retrieved 12 December 2016.
↑Richardson, Jean (13 May 1996). "U.K. venture firm to buy Routledge". Publishers Weekly. 243 (20): 16–17. ISSN0000-0019. Archived from the original on 2 June 2024. Retrieved 30 October 2022.
↑Kernan, M. A. (2013). "Routledge as a global publisher: A case study, 1980-2010". Publishing Research Quarterly. 29 (1): 52–72. doi:10.1007/s12109-013-9304-9. ISSN1053-8801. S2CID255517143. Archived from the original on 20 December 2019. Retrieved 23 March 2023.
Whipp, Richard (1992). "Human Resource Management, Competition and Strategy: Some Productive Tensions". In Paul Blyton; Peter Turnbull (eds.). Reassessing Human Resource Management. London: SAGE Publications. pp.33–55. ISBN0-8039-8697-1. OCLC28325927.
External links
Official website
History of Routledge
Routledge Revivals: Reprints from humanities and social sciences publications, from the backlists of Routledge imprints.
Routledge & Kegan Paul Archives: Ledgers, authors' agreements, printed catalogues and other papers 1853–1973, University College London.
Records of Routledge & Kegan Paul: Correspondence files covering the period 1935 to 1990, as well as review files 1950s–1990s, Special Collections, University of Reading Library.
Archives of George Routledge & Company 1853–1902, Chadwyck-Healey Ltd, 1973. 6 reels of microfilm and printed index. (Available from ProQuest)
Archives of Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner and Henry S. King 1858–1912, Chadwyck-Healey Ltd,1973. 27 reels of microfilm with index on microfiche. (Available from Proquest)
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