Areas of Expertise: Trends, future and value of STM journal publishing, the role of peer review, Elsevier’s EES system, and the development of electronic databases.

With 25 years at Elsevier, Martin Tanke has experienced the full cycle of STM publishing from scientist to publisher and senior manager. He has witnessed first hand the industry’s migration from print to electronic and from a reader’s to a creator’s market where the exchange of information now occurs well in advance of final publication.

In 1982, as a freshly graduated geologist from the University of Utrecht, Martin joined Elsevier as a publishing editor, directing the Geoscience portfolio until 1990. After the Elsevier acquisition of Pergamon some three years later, Martin was appointed the Publishing Director of Life Sciences and served on ScienceDirect’s founding team. He also played a key role in the acquisitions of Cell Press and BioMedNet. In 1999, Martin became the CEO of Engineering Information, spearheading the successful relaunch of Engineering Village.

Martin then served in a series of Managing Director roles for the newly created S&T division, in 2001 for the Engineering & Chemistry Group, in 2003 for Life Sciences and in 2005, as Elsevier’s Managing Director of S&T Journal Publishing. In this role, he places a critical priority on strengthening the brand value of individual journals and improving the experiences of Elsevier’s author, editor, reviewer and society communities.

“Ten years on, I anticipate that the lines between databases and journals will have grown far more blurred with tremendous improvements in functionality. While journals will still exist as a brand for submission, our customers won’t necessarily be paying for content, but for the in-depth knowledge they can derive from it. The industry constant? STM publishers will still have to acquire quality content in the first place—that’s essential.”