ALPSP International Conference 2008

Here’s the first of a few short reports on the Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers (ALPSP for ease of reference) conference I attended last week.

This is the industry body that promotes and represents the interests of specialist, academic journals publishers in particular. Don’t be fooled into thinking this is a twee backwater in the publishing scene: journals publishers have been migrating and re-purposing content online for years – even decades – as their customers have demanded it. Researchers, academics and librarians are at the front line of digital developments.

And here are some statistics about Elsevier’s ScienceDirect service that might dispel a few myths:

• 1 million downloads a day
• 2200 journals
• 8.7 million articles
• 10 million scientists have access from around the world

The source of this information was the speaker for the first key note address: Paul Evans, Senior Vice President, International Publishing Development, Elsevier. Titled ‘New constituencies for publishers – how democracy can follow or lead in the new world order’, I expected a call to arms to stop the onslaught of the Open Access model (where research can be accessed free to anyone online) which is one of the most challenging and contentious issues for scholarly publishers.

In fact, it was a call to collaborate and cooperate with government and politicians alike to continue the development of viable commercial models and ensure that the voice of the industry was represented. Key thoughts included:

• There is no tipping point in the different payment models being explored: a balanced range of options will provide both research community and publishers with the choice and flexibility they need.
• Experiments in article usage time via a paid vehicle need to be negotiated to ensure accurate optimum usage has been achieved.
• Publishers should provide evidence and existing user statistics for article downloads to convince politicians and funding bodies: demonstrate when the article can be posted for Open Access once sufficient return has been achieved.
• It’s about innovation: adapting to survive, better meeting needs, continually renewing your content, models and approach, avoiding stagnation, and most important of all – being driven by customer need.

This last point echoed many comments from the research we undertook over the summer in the publishing sector. More to follow anon.