Elsevier recently completed its planned acquisition of Interfolio, the leader in a rapidly emerging category of products known as Faculty Information Systems (FIS). This deal exemplifies many of the worrying trends described in SPARC’s ongoing market analyses over the past four years.1 In addition to increasing consolidation and presenting new threats to competition, this acquisition highlights the conflicts of interest that can be created when a single entity both publishes and assesses research—and also owns the leading platform through which that assessment takes place.
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