Peter Berkery of AAUP was a keynote speaker at the 2015 Academic Publishing in Europe conference. He gave an overview of the AAUP community of publishers, the association's strategic goals, and our roles in the global community of scholarly communications.

1. 20 January 2015
Peter Berkery
Executive Director

2.  136 Members
◦ 93 US, with university affiliation
◦ 19 US, with other institutional affiliation
◦ 10 Canadian (Anglophone)
◦ 14 International
 Founded in 1947
 8 staff
 Members must meet eligibility criteria:
◦ Peer review
◦ Commitment to Mission
◦ Sufficient program size

3.  Initially, attempt to accelerate learning curve
 Evolved into comprehensive conversations
about the state of UP publishing
 Meet with (varies with each visit):
◦ Press directors
◦ Press staff
◦ Administrators
◦ Librarians
 70 visits on 4 continents so far

4.  Trick question -- there is no typical member!
 Varies by:
◦ Size
◦ Publishing “Mix”
◦ Public or Private
 “system” presses
◦ Funding Mechanisms & Expectations

5.  Academic Monographs
◦ “By scholars, for scholars”
 Crossover Monographs
 Regional
◦ Cultural and natural history
 Literature
◦ Especially in translation
 Poetry
 Textbooks
 Journals

6.  Some Generalizations:
◦ Generally Humanities & Social Sciences
◦ Generally Long-form (fka “books”!)
◦ Respected for Curating Discipline-specific Lists
 Some Absolutes:
◦ Editorial Process:
 Scrupulous peer review
 Comparatively extensive editorial & mss development
 AAUP membership prerequisite
◦ Commitment to “mission”

7.  Advocacy/Visibility
 Financial Model Under Stress:
◦ Open Access
◦ Channel Disruption
◦ Shifting Library Budgets
 Scale (or lack thereof):
◦ Technology
◦ Production
◦ Sales & Marketing
 Changes in Promotion & Tenure Process
 Challenges to Peer Review

8.  AAUP’s New Strategic Plan
 Research Activities
◦ Largely Mellon Funded
◦ Intended to Build Capabilities Around:
 Consortial activity
 Bringing UP scholarship to the Open Web
 Global Focus

9. Build membership and foster internal and external
collaborations
◦ Celebrate existing collaborations among members
◦ Increase outreach to:
 international publishers and associations
 libraries and their organizations
 scholarly societies
 like-minded publishers
◦ Facilitate scaled collaborations to decrease costs and
increase capabilities
◦ Find points of common interest with like-minded
associations

10. Increase the visibility of our members and their
work through engagement with parent institutions,
funders, policymakers, and the reading public
◦ Promote the value of members to the academy
and the world
◦ Equip members to communicate our value to
local stakeholders
◦ Promote increased funding for higher education
and research
◦ Partner with funding organizations to explore
new financial models

11. Conduct research that provides data and analyses
to support advocacy and to inform publishing
operations and new business models
◦ Collect, analyze, and disseminate AAUP statistical
surveys
◦ Facilitate selective environmental scans to
identify trends, gaps, and options for new
business opportunities and models
◦ Find and disseminate compelling data points and
at-a-glance facts and statistics to advocate for
presses

12. Provide professional development leadership
training
◦ Inventory and affirm best practices
◦ Promote cross-member education
◦ Develop programs and services that promote
essential skills and leadership development

13.  Web-based discoverability engine
◦ nap.edu/academy-scope/
 Increase visibility among associations
representing Higher Education constituencies
 Increase visibility among government agencies
responsible for Humanities funding
 Expand membership categories
 International sub rights solution
 Infrastructure: new website & member
collaboration hub
 Research, research, research

14.  Recent Mellon Grants – building capabilities:
◦ Pilot expansion of existing distribution business
into publishing services platform (UNC Press)
◦ Electronic portal for art & architectural history
content (Yale U Press)
◦ Peer review pilot project for digital content
(Stanford U Press)
◦ Open access digital monographs (U California Press)
◦ Mixed-media digital publishing platform (WVU)
◦ More grants pending for Spring cycle
 Understanding Monograph Costs
 Digitizing Backlists

15.  Networks of Collaboration
◦ Exchange information, ideas, best practices globally
◦ Ex: sharing information on peer review practices
 Networks of Advocacy
◦ Raise awareness of increasingly global policy
discussions
◦ Ex: freedom-to-read, anti-piracy, open access
 Networks of Commerce
◦ Increase ability to transact business globally
◦ Ex: global sub-rights database