A major UK publisher of social science research has been bought by Wiley for £337 million.

In a deal announced on 2 June, the US publisher said it had completed an all-cash transaction for Emerald Publishing which publishes nearly 500 journal brands and 8,000 book titles, bringing Wiley’s overall journal portfolio to about 2,500 social science titles.

Founded in 1967 by a group of management academics at the University of Bradford, Emerald was an independent publishing house until 2022 when it was , a family-owned investment group based in New York.

Headquartered in Leeds, where it has about 350 staff, Emerald’s titles cover multiple disciplines including economics, business, finance, accounting, management, strategy, education, engineering, information and knowledge management, operations, public policy and environmental management.

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Welcoming the deal which values the company at €452 million (£337 million), Emerald’s chief executive Vicky Williams said Wiley was the “ideal home for Emerald and the global communities we serve”.

“For almost 60 years, we have been dedicated to publishing the highest-quality peer-reviewed research that bridges the gap between academic discovery and practical application, as well as developing an internal and external-facing culture that promotes inclusion and belonging,” said Williams.

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“Joining Wiley gives us the best-in-class platform, an extended global footprint, and further reach into academic and corporate markets to drive real-world impact, which aligns with our founding mission,” she added.

The UK-based publisher was an “outstanding strategic fit for Wiley”, said Matthew Kissner, president and chief executive of Wiley, on the “complementary portfolio, a compatible culture, and decades of specialised content that will meaningfully expand our scale and portfolio depth in both research publishing and research intelligence”.

"This transaction reflects our conviction that research and AI are mutually reinforcing: our proprietary content and data fuels AI, and AI accelerates the pace of publishing. Emerald materially strengthens both – expanding our peer-reviewed content base and adding a high-margin, recurring revenue stream that we expect to drive meaningful shareholder value,” he said.

According to the deal, Emerald is expected to generate over $85 million (£63 million) of revenue with mid-single-digit revenue growth in the year ending December 2026, which included 92 per cent recurring subscription revenue, and 85 per cent of revenue generated outside North America. Wiley’s income for 2025 was $1.66 billion, including

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Wiley said it expects to realise “approximately $30 million of annual run-rate cost synergies by year three, with meaningful cost synergy realisation by year two”.

In 2021, Wiley bought another UK-based publisher Hindawi in a deal worth almost $300 million with the aim of boosting its presence in Asia. The Hindawi brand was and its 200 open access journals integrated into Wiley’s own stable of publications after thousands of retractions, journal closures and the delisting of major titles due to research integrity breaches that cost the company between €35 million and €40 million in earnings that year.

jack.grove@timeshighereducation.com