ALPSP - Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers

Publishers have always had to listen to their markets, to their authors and readers and also to librarians in order to make the best of their business. Now increasingly they have to also listen and talk to politicians as the technology of publishing has changed and it has been suggested that economic models can be overhauled if not at times disintermediated. Meanwhile the realization that information as a commodity gains in value with use instead of being depleted has led to calls for publishers to reform and move from evolution to revolution or indeed face revolution. Politicians ride on these social currents and seek to gain advantage, recognition or, in the case of the best of them, advantages for society as models are reviewed and revised. This talk looks at how publishers are responding in terms of experimentation, policy changes and lobbying and tries to identify better approaches to influencing the debate based on presenting more clearly how publishers add value. Although the focus of attention in this talk is on publishing for the research world, broader fields of reference are examined and how they might be impacted by change while concentrating on the substance of the debate so that it is less likely to fall prey to sloppy thinking as it progresses in political circles.

1000 - 1030 Coffee/networking break

1030 - 1200 Running a Green (Publishing) House
Chair: Elaine Boyes, British Computer Society

Climate change, diminishing oil reserves, pollution, deforestation, species extinction… environmental issues are never far from the headlines. Consumers are increasingly knowledgeable and 'sophisticated' and awareness of these issues is at an all time high. Where do environmental issues sit within the framework of social responsibility generally? Do learned and professional societies have policies and strategies in respect of green issues? Can we expect them to take the moral high ground as non-profit organizations? Do they have the resources - financial and expertise - to develop and implement green policies? Do you know what your society members think on these issues? This session will examine the issues around minimizing the environmental impact of your publishing business. We will look at the pros and cons of introducing an environmental policy and at minor and major practical things that you can implement. Is this an issue that you can ignore?

Speakers:
Professor John Grace, Head of Institute and Environmental Science, Edinburgh University [pdf]
Toby Sawday, Business Development & Sustainability, Alastair Sawday Publishing Co. Ltd [pdf - 6.46mb]

1200 - 1400 Lunch/networking

1400 - 1530 The Web's Rich Tapestry
Co-chairs: Leigh Dodds, Platform Programme Manager, Talis [presentation; write-up; report]
and Geoffrey Bilder, Director of Strategic Initiatives, CrossRef [pdf]

As an industry, we tend to be document-centric, but Google and countless social networking sites have shown us that links are, in fact, the fabric of the web. They are a fundamental unit of information; without links the web doesn't function. Content that can't be linked to, can't be sown into the web and doesn't exist.

The next generation of the web will be more about links than about documents. This trend will accelerate as we start to use semantic web technologies and data mining techniques to weave together documents and data into a link-centric research environment that encourages interactivity, discovery, and reuse. The current web is a series of documents that are connected by links, but the future web will be a series of links that are annotated with documents.

1530 - 1600 Coffee/networking break

1600 - 1730 PARALLEL SESSIONS:

1600 - 1730 Society Book Publishing in the Digital Era
Chair: David Nicholls, Director of Book Publications, Modern Language Association

Learned and professional societies have long supported book publication programs in furtherance of their missions. The title output of such programs is highly varied, and includes scholarly monographs, technical and research reports, pedagogical guides, textbooks, reference works, scholarly editions, titles on issues of professional concern, and much else besides. This session considers the opportunities and risks such programs face in the digital era. Which texts should be developed in print, electronically, or both? How should societies and other non-profit organizations handle the costs of developing digital projects? What new services can we provide for scholars and users with digital publication? Speakers will examine the issue historically, in relation to changes in publishing, scholarship, and academic labor. The session will also include a case study from Caroline Wain on the Royal Society of Chemistry's e-book project.

Speakers:
Michael Jensen, Director of Publishing Technologies, The National Academies Press [pdf]
Rob Townsend, Assistant Director for Research and Publications, American Historical Association [pdf]
Caroline Wain, Book Publisher, Royal Society of Chemistry [pdf]

1600 - 1730 Journal industry updates (A) - licensing & legal issues
Chair: John Cox, Managing Director, John Cox Associates

This session will provide updates on a number of important industry initiatives in journal publishing. Track A (chaired by John Cox) looks at licensing and legal issues, while Track B (chaired by Louise Tutton) examines initiatives of a more technical nature.

SERU - Shared Electronic Resource Understanding (Todd Carpenter, Managing Director NISO) [pdf]
ACAP - the Automated Content Access Protocol (Jens Bammel, Secretary General, IPA) [pdf]
<short break>
Project Transfer (Ed Pentz, Executive Director, CrossRef) [pdf]
Journal Article Versions (Todd Carpenter, Managing Director, NISO) [pdf]

1600 - 1730 Journal industry updates B - technical issues and initiatives
Chair: Louise Tutton, Senior Vice President, Scholarly Division, Publishing Technology

Usage Factor (Richard Gedye, Research Director, Oxford Journals) [pdf]
Institutional Identifiers (Helen Henderson, Managing Director, Ringgold)[pdf]
<short break>
KBART (Charlie Rapple, Head of Marketing Development, TBI Communications)[pdf]
ticTOCs: towards best practice in RSS TOC feed structure and content
(Geoffrey Bilder, Director of Strategic Initiatives, CrossRef )[pdf]

1900 - 2200 Conference Dinner including presentation of ALPSP Awards (included in Conference Fee; tickets for the dinner only are available)
After dinner speaker: Ben Goldacre, The Guardian's Bad Science

Friday 12 September
0900 - 1000 Keynote: The Future is a Foreign Country: Threats and opportunities in a networked world
Timo Hannay, Nature Publishing Group [pdf - some images have been removed to reduce file size]

From being almost unknown outside of academic circles fifteen years ago, the Internet is now part of our everyday lives. This keynote address will examine the opportunities and threats that have arisen as a result of the technological and social changes wrought by the Internet, and the imperative for publishers to keep moving forward if they are to maintain relevance.

1000- 1030 Coffee/networking break

1030 - 1200 Realising potential?
Chair: Alan Singleton, Managing Director, Professional Engineering Publishing

Have you ever wondered if your magazines, your website, the house journal for your members have unrealised commercial potential? Does your society have the potential to develop or improve a commercial product? What are the criteria? What are the potential benefits and risks (e.g. diversification, different vulnerabilities from journals and books)? What are the opportunities afforded by electronic developments - eg associated websites, recruitment advertising etc?

Speakers:
Paul A Williams, Magazine Publishing Director, Professional Engineering Publishing [pdf]
Eric Pepper, Director of Publications, SPIE [pdf]
Carlos Rossel, Marketing Director, World Bank Publications Group [pdf]

Everything you wanted to know about initiatives in scholarly publishing but were too busy to ask…
Chair: Mandy Hill, Editorial Director, Oxford Journals

Working in a small publishing house can be extremely challenging and it is very difficult to keep abreast of the panoply of projects, services and initiatives in the industry. It is especially difficult to determine which of these can help your business and are deserving of your precious time. This session aims to assist those working in small publishing houses by giving a basic overview of a number of initiatives that could benefit your publishing activities but that you may have been too busy to investigate.

ALPSP e-Books Collection (Linda Bennett, Gold Leaf and Nick Evans, ALPSP)[pdf]
Detecting and dealing with subscription fraud (Andrew Pitts, American Chemical Society) [info]
CrossRef (Ed Pentz, Executive Director, CrossRef) [pdf]
Counter/interpreting usage statistics (Richard Gedye, Research Director, Oxford Journals)[pdf]

1200- 1400 Lunch / networking

Conference Ends

1400-1500 ALPSP Annual General Meeting (members only)

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