T&F buys reference-management tool colwiz

Taylor & Francis Group, a publisher of specialist books, has bought digital research services firm colwiz.

The publisher, which focuses on upper-level academic titles, has acquired the early stage digital research services firm for an undisclosed sum as part of its ongoing investment in technology to support the “discoverability of content”.

colwiz launched in 2013 from the University of Oxford’s Isis Software Incubator. It provides interactive digital collaboration and reference management services for researchers in academia, industry and government globally.

The company’s c.e.o and founder Tahir Mansoori and its data scientists, engineers and designers will now join T&F following the acqusition. As part of the publisher’s group, the colwiz team will begin working on the launch of wizdom.ai, a proprietary research knowledge graph which uses artificial intelligence and big data to generate continuously-updated analytics on scientific developments.

Ian Bannerman, journals managing director at T&F, said his company had enjoyed a close working relationship with colwiz since it brought its interactive PDF reader to the publisher’s journals platform in 2013. He said: “Both companies share a common interest in services that optimise how digital content is discovered and used, to generate maximum value for the academic community.

He added: “We’re excited about the capabilities and talent this investment in colwiz brings to our group, and look forward to exploring how insights and data from its new suite of services can help to inform research institutions around the world.”

Mansoori said: “This marks the next chapter in the colwiz story. We are pleased to be joining a company that’s committed to publishing high quality specialist content and to innovating, through technology and partnerships, to make research as usable, discoverable and ultimately as valuable as possible.”

In May last year T&F launched an online hub for its scholarly customers and partners in China in recognition of the "important role" of Chinese scholarship. TandFChina.com, offers key resources in Mandarin to the scholarly community in China.