ALPSP - Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers

The winners of the 2008 Awards were announced at the ALPSP International Conference Dinner on Thursday 11 September. Applications were invited for two awards: The Award for Publishing Innovation and the Award for Best New Journal. The Award for Service to Scholarly Publishing is made by the ALPSP Council.

Left to Right: Tony Roche (Elsevier), Diane Cogan (Elsevier), Ed Pentz (CrossRef), Kurt Paulus, Robert Parker (ALPSP Chair), Penelope Lewis (ACS), Jonathan Crowe (OUP).

ALPSP AWARD FOR SERVICE TO SCHOLARLY PUBLISHING

The ALPSP Award for Service to Scholarly Publishing was awarded by Council to Kurt Paulus as a great 'unsung hero' of scholarly publishing - who has quietly made an enormous contribution both at the publisher he served for almost all of his career, in the community and in his work for ALPSP as Treasurer and Editor of Learned Publishing. Those who had the privilege of working with him could not fail to be impressed and influenced by his intelligence, integrity and self-deprecating manner. Many of those who have worked with him at IoP or on committees etc will have carried his influence into their working lives at publishers around the world.


Kurt Paulus receiving the ALPSP Award for Service to Scholarly Publishing from Robert Parker.

ALPSP AWARD FOR PUBLISHING INNOVATION

The winner for 2008 was CrossCheck from the CrossRef/iParadigms Partnership. This new anti-plagiarism service enhances the crucial issue of trust necessary in a robust scholarly publishing system, and provides a further demonstration of the value and reassurance which the formal publication process can offer to authors, readers, and research funders.

A Highly Commended Certificate was awarded to Bioscience Horizons from Oxford Journals. This new journal potentially unlocks the value of research undertaken by undergraduates by giving unprecedented global exposure to the best of it.

Also shortlisted were: OECD.Stat from the Organisation for Economic and Co-operation Development;
Ringgold Institutional Identifier from Ringgold Ltd; and Routine authoring and publication of enhanced figures from the International Union of Crystallography.

ALPSP AWARD FOR BEST NEW JOURNAL

The winner was the Journal of Informetrics published by Elsevier. It is an excellent example of the research and planning needed when launching a new journal, combined with the attention needed to integrate it into a particular research community.

The Judges awarded a Highly Commended Certificate to ACS Nano published by the American Chemical Society which demonstrated impressive implementation and results from a highly professional new journal launch.

Also shortlisted were: Industrial and Organizational Psychology:Perspectives on Science and Practice (IOP), published by Wiley-Blackwell for the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology and the International Journal of Managing Projects in Business published by Emerald Group Publishing.

About the ALPSP Awards

Panel of Judges
Richard Gedye, Research Director, Oxford Journals (Chair)
Geoffrey Bilder, Director of Strategic Initiatives, CrossRef
Sue Corbett, General Manager for Medicine, Wiley-Blackwell
Hugh Look, Senior Consultant, Rightscom
Mark Ware, Director, Mark Ware Consulting
Hazel Woodward, University Librarian & Director of Cranfield Press

ALPSP Award for PUBLISHING INNOVATION recognises a truly innovative approach to any aspect of publication. Applications are judged on their originality and innovative qualities, together with their utility, benefit to their community and long term prospects. Any area of innovation is eligible - it could, for example, be a novel type of print or online publication or service, or even a radically different approach to a marketing campaign.

ALPSP Award for BEST NEW JOURNAL is open to any journal launched within the past 3 years. The judges consider four main aspects of the journal and its launch: market research, editorial strategy, marketing and commercial success. The journal should include a substantial number of peer reviewed articles.

The voting on both the shortlist and winners of the ALPSP Awards was done in open session of the panel. Where a judge had an organizational interest in a candidate then he or she withdrew during the relevant discussion, and also was not permitted to vote for that particular candidate when deciding on the results.

2009 Awards - information will be available in the new year. Contact Lesley Ogg (email)

Background Information:

2008 Awards Finalists Press Release (pdf)

2008 Awards Brochure including conditions of entry (pdf)

Judges' Reports
2007 Awards (pdf); 2006 Awards (pdf); 2005 Awards (pdf); 2004 Awards (pdf)