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Elsevier has acquired bepress, a business which helps academic libraries showcase and share their institutions' research.
The acquisition, for an undisclosed sum, is effective immediately. Bepress c.e.o. Jean-Gabriel Bankier and the company's employees will continue to operate at their existing base in California.
Founded in 1999 by three professors at the University of California, Berkeley, bepress allows institutions to collect, organise, preserve and disseminate a range of outputs including pre-prints, working papers, journal articles, dissertations, working papers and conference proceedings.
Showcasing their research is important part of how institutions secure funding and attract faculty and students. Bepress content currently contains over two million articles and attracts 100 million annual downloads.
Olivier Dumon, managing director for Research Products at Elsevier, noted: "Bepress has led the way in helping institutions showcase their work. We are pleased to welcome bepress to Elsevier and look forward to doing great things together."
By coming under its wing, bepress would be better able to serve institutional needs, Elsevier also said. "Elsevier's suite of research products, such as Scopus, Pure, SSRN and SciVal will enhance the breadth and quality of the reach, promotion and impact services bepress delivers to its customers," it commented.
The acquisition of bepress follows on from Elsevier's buy of London start-up Mendeley, also originally set up by a trio of academics, in 2013.