AAP Professional/Scholarly Publishing Division Committees

For additional information contact:

John Tagler, Vice President & Executive Director, 212-225-0200, ext. 223, or jtagler@publishers.org
Sara Pinto , Director, 212-255-0200, ext. 257, or spinto@publishers.org
Kate Kolendo, Project Manager, 212-255-0200, ext. 226, or kkolendo@publishers.org

Professional/Scholarly Publishing Division Executive Council

Membership to the Council is elected and is composed of corporate executives and executive directors of small, mid-sized, and large commercial companies, learned societies and university presses. The PSP Division of AAP, publishers of business, legal, scientific, technical, medical, humanities and reference products, 1) proposes policy positions and standards on (and may fund) AAP projects important to scholarly and professional publishers; 2) informs its membership about important technology issues via publications and position papers; and 3) provides continuing professional education designed to enhance the skills of member company employees in all areas of professional and scholarly publishing. The Executive Council seeks to 1) defend copyright and protect its members’ intellectual property worldwide; 2) explore the opportunities and ramifications of technologies that affect the changing structure of academic, educational and business publishing in the distribution of information; improve relationships with the library, academic and user communities; and 3) monitor/influence Government and regulatory developments worldwide bearing on PSP interests.

PSP American Medical Publishers Committee (AMPC)

The primary goals of the PSP/AMPC are to educate, advocate, engage in outreach and philanthropy and frame issues of relevance to medical publishers, including promoting a positive image of scientific and medical publishing.

PSP Books Committee

The PSP Books Committee provides a forum for discussion of emerging strategic issues in the book publishing industry and should also be used to provide educational resources to encourage new members as well as keep old members informed. The goal of the committee is to broaden the PSP constituency by covering issues relevant to book publishers. These issues include:

• Educational training – produce 2-3 seminars a year
• Print publishing – traditional vs. non-traditional
• Global book issues
• Import/export
• Digital issues
  • ebooks
  • books online
  • pda’s
  • emarketing of printed books
  • print on demand
  • podcasting
• Reference and Education of hybrid products, i.e. online supplements
• Textbook Publishing – marketing & education
• Link to Higher Education issues, e.g. parallel importation
• New book publishing markets, i.e. advanced degree courses

PSP Electronic Information Committee (EIC)

The role of the Electronic Information Committee is to educate and inform the PSP membership of opportunities, concerns and developments in electronic publishing. The Committee’s focus is 1) new methods of distribution of professional and scholarly information; 2) copyright and control of professional and scholarly information in electronic formats; 3) new forms of copyright infringement enabled by new technologies; 4) evolving customer use patterns and trends in the professional and scholarly markets; and 5) federal regulations governing electronic publishing. The Electronic information Committee works to summarize the status of the industry, spot trends, focus attention on overlooked issues and, in general, give PSP members a base of information to allow them to make informed and intelligent decisions on the direction of their business relative to the rapidly developing market of electronic publishing.

PSP Journals Committee

Membership is open to Division representatives of any member journal publishing company or organization and includes for-profit, not-for-profit and university press members in science, technology, and social sciences. The committee focuses on industry issues specific to journal publishing. Provides a network for discussion of journal-related legislation, particularly postal, copyright, and new technologies. Presents a series of educational fora of interest to scientific and business journal publishers, i.e. the bi-annual Journals Boot Camp. Liaises with International STM, ALA, ARL, SSP, NASIG, NFAIS and other serials-related groups. The committee is also responsible for staging the AAP/PSP Journals Boot Camp, a biannual rigorous training forum for new journals personnel. The Boot Camp exposes and challenges the participants with issues relating to journals publishing.

PSP Public Issues Task Force

This task force meets frequently in Washington to benefit from reports by AAP's legal and government affairs department. Members represent PSP commercial houses, university presses and learned societies. The committee follows the progress of such legislation as Database Protection, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and national and international trends and issues such as unauthorized document delivery, fair use in the digital environment, Government competition in publishing (NIH and PubMed Central, and Open Archives), standards, archiving, linking, regulatory issues such as those of OFAC affecting publications of foreign authors, political and legislative issues that influence or impact the business of professional publishing. Reports are given regularly to the PSP Executive Council.

PSP Public Relations Committee

The PSP PR Committee's mission is to create a continuous flow of positive messages about the value of scholarly publishing, as well as clarify our position on important issues and promote balanced coverage of the industry in the media.

PSP Budget & Finance Committee

• Membership of the Committee shall consist of the AAP Vice President for PSP, and at least three current members of the Executive Committee.  Other members of PSP may be included as necessary, especially to provide financial expertise.

• Assist PSP staff in preparation of annual budgets
• Analyze Revenue projections to ensure sufficient program revenue is available
• Recommend any dues increase or change in dues structure
• Analyze Expense projections to ensure optimal use of funds for and in support of PSP and AAP programs.

• Receive and review requests for funding of new and unbudgeted items, recommending to the Executive Committee approval or disapproval of the requests, and suggesting and identifying sources of funds if the request is to be approved.
• Consider any proposals for special assessments and recommend to the Executive Committee any such proposal in support of unbudgeted items.

• Monitor the rate of all expenditures in order to identify any emerging problems
• Meet at least quarterly to review the most current report of financial activity.

• With PSP staff, report to the Membership at the Annual Meeting a summary of the financial activity of PSP for the prior year and request approval of the proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year.