The Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers (ALPSP), is pleased to announce the shortlist for the ALPSP Awards for Innovation in Publishing 2021, sponsored by HighWire.

Applications for the annual awards were open to any new development, product, service or project which is both innovative and of significant value to scholarly communication. The winners are asked to demonstrate excellence in terms of originality, innovation, value to the community, utility and long-term viability.

The ALPSP Awards finalists for 2021 are: 

• Antiracism Toolkit for Allies, Toolkits for Equity, an initiative of C4DISC
• Lean Library Futures, Lean Library, a SAGE Publishing Company
• Mindscape Commons, Coherent Digital
• Opening the Future, CEU Press / COPIM
• PLOS Community Action Publishing (CAP), PLOS
• Standalone Plain Language Summary of Publication Articles (PLSP), Future Science Group.

David Sommer, Chair of the judging panel, and co-founder at Kudos commented:   
"The judging panel was pleased to receive submissions from a diverse range of organizations representing all parts of our community. We received 26 entries – slightly fewer entries than in previous years, which is understandable with the pandemic, but we are delighted to say that the standard has remained high. We congratulate everyone who have made this year’s shortlist."

Wayne Sime, Chief Executive of ALPSP, added:
“With a wide spectrum of entries from different organizations across the world, it’s great to see that the sector is continuing to innovate and strive, even during a global pandemic. We’d like to thank the Awards Panel for reviewing all the submissions in meticulous detail, and are excited to virtually meet them all at the ALPSP Annual Conference in September.”

All the finalists will present their submission to the judges in July. They will be also invited to showcase their innovation to industry peers at the ALPSP Awards session to be held online on Wednesday 15 September at the opening of the ALPSP Virtual Conference & Awards 2021. The winners will be announced on the final day of the Conference on Friday 17 September. 

Judging panel:

• David Sommer, Chief Product Officer & Co-founder, Kudos (Chair)
• Andrew Barker, Director of Library Services and Learning Development, Lancaster University
• Kivmars Bowling, Publications Director, SIAM
• Iain Craig, Senior Director of Market & Publishing Analytics, Wiley
• Lorraine Estelle, Project Director, COUNTER
• Richard Gedye, Scholarly and Professional Publishing Consultant
• Athena Hoeppner, Discovery Services Librarian, University of Central Florida
• Robert Iannello, Senior Product Manager, ARM Education Media
• Louise Russell, Director, Tutton Russell Consulting
• David Smith, Head of Technology Strategy, The IET.

ENDS

About ALPSP
ALPSP is the international trade association which supports and represents not-for-profit organizations that publish scholarly and professional content, and those that work with them. Membership of ALPSP is for the whole organization so all employees can take advantage of the benefits on offer. ALPSP is proud to have nearly 300 member organizations across 30 countries.

About the ALPSP Virtual Conference and Awards 2021
The ALPSP Conference 2020 will be run virtually from 15‑17 September with the ALPSP Awards for Innovation in Publishing announcement taking place on the opening day. The main themes of this year’s event are discoverability/accessibility and The Great Reset: Scenario planning for life after COVID.

The conference provides a friendly forum in which to share information and knowledge, learn about new initiatives and engage in open discussion on the challenges and opportunities facing the industry. All delegates will also have the chance to network with the conference community during regular breakout sessions throughout. Bookings are now open via the ALPSP website.

For further information, please email jo.hutchinson@alpsp.org or lesley.ogg@alpsp.org or visit the awards page.

You can also follow #alpspawards on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook and YouTube.