Annual Report 2024

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What moves us forward is people, from the hundreds of thousands of researchers, librarians, teachers and doctors with whom we enjoy longstanding relationships, to our more than 9,000 colleagues.

Frank Vrancken Peeters

Chief Executive Officer

Overview of 2024

We are proud to be part of progress, working together with the communities we serve to share knowledge and bring greater understanding to the world.

Through our brands, trusted for more than 180 years, we provide technology-enabled products, platforms and services that help researchers to uncover new ideas and share their discoveries, health professionals to stay at the forefront of medical science and educators to advance learning.

Photo of Frank Vrancken Peeters

Engaging with our communities in 2024

We forged deeper relations with the communities we serve around the world

Promoting integrity

In India we held our second ‘research tour’, a 27-day tour across 15 cities in nine states, hosting 24 research summits emphasising the importance of research integrity and OA.

Supporting collaboration

We founded a Latin American Research Advisory Council to better support and collaborate with researchers there.

Mentoring researchers

In our Early Career Researcher programme we mentored 25 researchers at minority-serving institutions and in underserved communities across 11 countries, providing training on publishing in high-impact journals.

Bringing great discoveries and insights to the world

  • Coral crisis

    Research published in Nature showed that water temperatures in and around the Great Barrier Reef, Australia, in the past decade have been the warmest in the past 400 years. These periods of warming increase the risk of mass coral bleaching and mortality and are likely driven by human-induced climate change. The research concludes that without urgent intervention it could have negative consequences for biodiversity, and that a continuation on the current trajectory would further threaten the ecological function of one of Earth’s greatest natural wonders.

  • Space biology

    The Space Omics and Medical Atlas (SOMA) package represented the largest-ever compendium of data for aerospace medicine and space biology. Published across a number of our journals including Nature, Nature Communications, Communications Biology and Scientific Reports, the package included analyses of samples collected from the first all-civilian crew from the Inspiration4 mission and from astronauts who have spent 180 days or a year on the International Space Station, providing a longer-term view of the effects of space flight on health.

  • Brain health

    A Springer book presented innovative research on how brain health could be optimised through a hybrid-powered fuel system that combines glucose and ketone bodies. This research offered a practical approach to enhancing cognitive function, emotional stability and long-term brain health. By adopting the Small Ketogenic method, which involves simple dietary adjustments, individuals can unlock their brain’s full potential and support healthy ageing, an important step in addressing the growing global focus on mental health and cognitive longevity.

  • Empower learning

    Macmillan Education’s Kids Can! series goes beyond traditional language learning. It sparks curiosity, fosters creativity and promotes global citizenship, empowering young learners with the skills and mindset to thrive in an interconnected world. This best-selling series in the English Language Teaching division helps shape confident individuals who will lead with empathy and a global perspective, making a lasting impact on their futures.

Our impact in 2024

  • We added value to the
    communities we serve

    5.2

    Average citations per article, up by 4%

    18%

    Increase in downloads

    10m+

    Downloads per day

    32,000+

    Doctors using our Medbee app

    1.6m+

    Active users engaged with Macmillan Education Everywhere, our single, flexible platform for all our education content

  • We published a record amount of trusted information with extensive reach

    482k

    Primary research articles published

    14k

    Books published

    3.7bn

    Content downloads across all platforms

Strong financial performance

We delivered another year of solid results in 2024, extending our track record of continuous improvement in revenues and operating profits.

Download a PDF of our full Annual Report

€1,847m

Revenue

€512.4m

Adjusted operating profit

€177m+

Technology-related spend (including research integrity)

Download a PDF of our full Annual Report