Silverchair, the leading independent hosting platform partner for scholarly and professional publishers, today announced signing a definitive agreement with Clarivate Plc (NYSE:CLVT), a leading global provider of transformative intelligence, to acquire ScholarOne Manuscripts and ScholarOne Conferences (“ScholarOne”). Upon closing, this new combined offering will set Silverchair apart in the industry as an independent and client-led technology partner to scholarly publishers. With this acquisition, Silverchair will be uniquely capable of helping publishers solve their greatest content and technology challenges.
“For over 30 years, Silverchair has served the needs of publishers as an independent and unconflicted technology partner,” said Silverchair CEO Will Schweitzer. “We believe that innovation and technology can help fulfill the promise of scholarship, and we will make substantial investments in ScholarOne to meet the needs of the research community. This acquisition was part of Founder Thane Kerner’s long-term vision for Silverchair, and I’m pleased to bring it to fruition with the strong support of Thompson Street Capital Partners.”
Emmanuel Thiveaud, Senior Vice President, Research & Analytics, Academia & Government, at Clarivate said: “We are confident that Silverchair is a great home for ScholarOne with a compelling strategic fit. We are delighted that the team at Silverchair recognizes the significance of what we have built at ScholarOne. ScholarOne’s next chapter as part of Silverchair will bring together world-class talent and capabilities with a shared commitment to helping the scholarly publishing community thrive.”
Following significant investment by Thompson Street Capital Partners in 2022, Silverchair has grown by making substantial investments in the flagship Silverchair Platform, adding new partners and products (like Sensus Impact), and launching the Silverchair AI Lab. Following the close of the acquisition in the coming weeks, ScholarOne will join Silverchair as a complementary and critical piece of publishing technology, offering more of Silverchair’s renowned services to more of the publishing lifecycle.
The ScholarOne (Manuscripts & Conferences) submission systems are essential platforms used by more than 9,000 scholarly journals and conferences to review millions of manuscripts and conference abstracts each year. Over 25% of scholarly journals in the world trust ScholarOne.
“The ScholarOne team is excited to continue serving the scholarly publishing community, now as an independent, end-to-end partner,” said Josh Dahl, Senior Director of Product Management for ScholarOne. “We look forward to collaborating with our expanded community to amplify the impact of scholarship by developing these leading technology platforms to meet the needs of publishers, editors, and authors.”
Together with Silverchair’s client-led, customer-focused, and transparent approach, the combined company will meet even more of the needs of the publishing community as an innovative technology and services provider.
Driving growth for integrated infrastructure
Both the Silverchair Platform and ScholarOne are essential pieces of publishing infrastructure. With this acquisition, Silverchair will harness the full potential of these complementary technologies and workflows to accelerate innovation in scholarly publishing, particularly with AI and in research integrity. Publishers may now partner with Silverchair through even more of the publishing lifecycle, from submission and review to content hosting, productization, and distribution.
“We’re delighted by this news and look forward to working with Silverchair across more of the publication process,” said John Campbell, Product Strategy Director for Oxford University Press. “We’ve seen the impact and success of our partnership providing exceptional platform services to the research community and will work with Silverchair to bring that same approach to submission and peer review. We have a long-standing relationship with ScholarOne and are excited for this next phase of transformation and development.”
Building a future for long-term commitment
This acquisition marks a key milestone in Silverchair’s continued investment in scholarly publishing infrastructure to serve the community. Clients will benefit from further expansion and investment in both ScholarOne’s offerings as well as the Silverchair Platform.
“We see amazing potential to implement AI and automations across the publishing lifecycle, bringing efficiencies and integrations that will benefit a diverse group of stakeholders from authors through to readers,” said Emilie Delquié, Chief Product & Customer Success Officer. “Our planned strategic investment will ensure ScholarOne leads publishing workflows in trust, transparency, and user experience. By bringing Silverchair’s signature level of service and community to ScholarOne, we can truly transform publishing infrastructure.”
Silverchair will develop a bold vision for the future of ScholarOne, with transparent feedback and input from all stakeholders. This acquisition gives Silverchair increased global reach and scale to consider holistic improvements to scholarly publishing infrastructure and workflows. The acquisition is expected to close within the fourth quarter of 2024 subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions.
