All eyes in the scholarly professional publishing industry are on market leader Elsevier to see how the company will react to a decision by of a group of prominent University of California faculty to step away from journal editorial boards until the publisher agrees to restart negotiations with the 10-campus system on a new contract for access to Elsevier’ scholarly journals.

Medical publishing targets both students and professionals practicing in a variety of healthcare professions. The market encompasses a broad range of formats from journals and books to online content such as databases and clinical research tools.

Karen Meaney is a senior analyst/editor at Simba Information, where she has worked for 14 years, writing more than two dozen reports on the educational publishing industry.

Educational publishing is no stranger to disruption, and this vast, shifting market is experiencing new waves of challenges and competitive forces.

The growth of mobile technology has created great opportunities for publishers that develop content for professionals in medicine, business, law, scientific and technical fields.

Accessing content with tablets and smartphones is becoming the norm for many professionals in a variety of occupations.

Kathy Mickey is a managing editor of the Education Group at Simba Information, where she has worked for 19 years, authoring more than 50 studies focused on PreK-12, higher education instructional materials, and educational technology. She also is the primary author of the biweekly newsletter Educational Marketer and oversees the editorial production of a second biweekly newsletter Electronic Education Report. 

Scientific, technical, and medical (STM) publishing exceeds $25 billion annually, and its leading competitors consistently post adjusted profit margins that exceed 30%, according to our research at Simba Information. 

However, these same STM publishers are facing disruption in the face of a movement to create open access to the scholarly research they publish. 

Social science and humanities (SSH) publishing encompasses a broad range of subject areas, from anthropology and religion to music and philosophy. Types of media include print and electronic books and journals, as well as online services and databases.

New education technology companies have entered the market and are attracting millions of dollars in funding from venture capitalists. In different ways, these companies are working to provide innovative solutions to on-going problems in education.

To learn more, check out the eight education tech companies listed below. The startups highlighted in this article are less than seven years old and have all been profiled in the Ed Tech Startup Dashboard Q3 2015 by Simba Information, a leading provider of market research and analysis.

As schools gradually shift away from print products and move to innovative, technology-based formats, a new digital evolution is occurring in the classroom. In the U.S., growth in the number of schools, implementation of modern technological devices, and new standards and tests are all major factors contributing to the increasing demand for digital instructional materials.