It’s

finally here! The fifth ALPSP International Conference

and we’re off to The Belfry, the “Spiritual Home of the Ryder Cup”, set in 500

acres of stunning countryside.  I’m

hoping that delegates won’t be side-tracked by such a spectacular setting as

we’ve got an excellent line up of sessions and social events.

 

 

 

2012 is ALPSP’s 40th year and we

look forward to celebrating.  Our opening

Keynote on Tuesday afternoon is Mary Waltham, who will take a very honest view

of the last 40 years of scholarly and professional publishing and ask ‘how did

we do?’  It may not be as good as we

might think.  Arend Welmers is our second

keynote on Wednesday morning.  If we got

a poor grade from Mary, then perhaps Arend may be able to direct us along the

right path.

 

 

Our plenary sessions start with an

entertaining look at the global issues affecting scholarly and professional

publishing.  Then we address the thorny

issues of just how scholarly communication is going to cope with reducing

attentions spans and whether any of us will survive having to give it all away.  Our final plenary on Thursday has a slightly

more positive slant: “It’s the end of the world as we know it…and I feel fine!”

 

 

In amongst all that, there are six parallel

sessions to choose from.  Before lunch on

Wednesday, we’ll be getting the low-down on proposed changes to copyright

legislation and their potential effects, finding out what text mining actually

is and how it may impact you, or gaining insights to app development.  After lunch there’s the tricky choice between

making content discoverable, dealing with unethical behaviours or finding out

about the latest product initiatives. 

 

 

Unable

to make it?  We

have a dedicated band of tweeters to keep you up to date (#alpsp12), and we’re also

hoping to have regular blog updates.  In

addition, we’re videoing all the sessions, so you can catch up with what you

missed after the conference.

 

 

I would like to say a huge thank you to all

of our sponsors:

 

 

Gold             Oxford University Press

 

 

Silver              QScience.com

 

                   SAGE

 

Copyright Clearance Center

 

Atypon

 

Thomson Reuters

 

 

Bronze           Publishing Technology

 

                   SWETS

 

                   DataSalon

 

                   Cambridge University Press

 

Nature Publishing Group

 

                   Turpin Distribution

 

                   Wiley-Blackwell

 

                   RSC Publishing

 

 

Reception

Sponsors            Publishing Technology (Opening Reception)

 

                                      Highwire

(Dinner Reception)

 

         

 

I look forward to seeing those of you

making your way to the conference.  I

hope you enjoy it and leave feeling reinvigorated and ready to tackle the next

40 years!

 

 

Audrey McCulloch

 

Chief Executive