CCC’s partner, The Association of Learned & Professional Society Publishers (ALPSP), will host its annual conference at the Beaumont Estate, Old Windsor, Berkshire, UK from 12-14 September.
The ALPSP Conference, a key date on the scholarly publishing calendar, provides a critical environment in which to share information and knowledge, learn about new initiatives, as well as engage in open discussion on the challenges and opportunities facing publishing today. This year’s key themes of discussion are:
- Openness and Policy –how do funder policies and mandates affect publishers of all sizes, researchers in all disciplines, and various regional markets?
- Business and Technology – how are practical applications for AI, blockchain, new monetization strategies around data, sustainable publishing partnerships, and new markets such as online teaching materials driving innovation in content creation and content consumption?
- Researchers and Ethics – how can publishers better support researcher and author workflows around journals and books across all disciplines, including data and metrics, as well as researcher and author experiences during peer review, ensuring a diverse environment with freedom to publish?
The three-day program is packed with terrific sessions, so plan your attendance wisely. Below, CCC colleagues attending this year share their top picks.
Kurt Heisler, Sales Director
Plenary 1 – Openness and Policy: How should we accelerate a transition to open access?
Wednesday September 12
3:15 PM – 4:15 PM
Hanover Suite, Ground Floor
I’m looking forward to getting the take of this expert panel on one of the most pressing questions across publishing today: where are we in the transition to OA, and how can we come closer to achieving open research goals set by the likes of Horizon 2020? Bringing all stakeholders from across the OA landscape to the table is really the first step toward progress in this area, and so I’m quite excited that the panel includes perspectives from a research funder (Steven Hill, Director of Research for Research England), publishers (Kamran Naim, Director of Partnerships and Initiatives, Annual Reviews; and Sarah McKee, Senior Associate Director for Publishing, Emory University), and researchers (represented by Prof. Sarah Kember, University of London), making for a can’t-miss discussion.
Jamie Carter, Manager of Publishing Solutions
Plenary 2: Harvesting and Analyzing Data
Thursday September 13
9:15 AM – 10:15 AM
Hanover Suite, Ground Floor
I’m most excited about this session focused on data, with experts from key industry players like Maverick Publishing Specialists (Lettie Conrad), BMJ (David Hutcheson), Delta Think (Ann Michael), and Emerald Publishing Group (Chris Leonard). While there are a lot of different conversations happening at the moment on this topic, this panel is really asking the right questions:
- What data can we collect? What data should we collect?
- How do we move beyond vanity metrics and measure what drives usage?
- How can we create transparency in data collection so multiple stakeholders can turn insights into innovations?
Michael Healy, Executive Director of International Relations
Parallel Session 2a – The Impact of Open Access on Library Sales, Strategies and Solutions
Thursday September 13
10:45 AM – 11:30 AM
Hanover 2, Ground Floor
Following on the theme of looking at all aspects of openness and transparency, this panel is a terrific opportunity for members of the scholarly publishing community to hear directly from world-class institutional librarians (University of Tulsa, Université de Lorraine, and Stockholm University) and gain first-hand insight into the direct and indirect implications of OA on the library market. Publishers, technology partners, funders, and authors alike can benefit from a more thorough understanding of how librarians’ roles, purchasing strategies, and library solutions are changing as the scholarly communications landscape evolves. Don’t miss it!
Chuck Hemenway, Sales Director
Thursday September 13
11:35 AM – 12:20 PM
Hanover 2, Ground Floor
This is a fantastic line-up of publishing experts from across the industry with deep knowledge of collaborative approaches and infrastructures for open data sharing for open science, particularly as it relates to helping researchers align and coordinate with publishers and funders. Insufficient metadata passed between these key parties leads to poor reporting and a lack of transparency, but even more importantly, reliance on author knowledge of policies, licensing, and payment requirements introduces errors and creates a highly frustrating user experience. The more we can connect stakeholders across the OA publishing ecosystem with data-driven, cross-publisher solutions, the better positioned we are to solve these challenges. I look forward to hearing more about projects in this space from Research Consulting, Digital Science, and OpenAIRE.
Matt Pedersen, Senior Director of Rightsholder Relations
Parallel Session 1d – The E-Textbook Conundrum
Thursday September 13
2:50 PM – 3:35 PM
Hanover 1, Ground Floor
I’m admittedly a bit biased, but I’m excited about a panel I’ll be moderating on e-textbooks. There are a lot of prominent challenges in this space at the moment, with publishers needing to deliver content online or in multiple formats at an increasingly granular level; university libraries and faculty faced with limited budgets; and students having high expectations but little appetite or time for learning the ins and outs of new tools. The focus of this session will be on sharing different perspectives on how publishers might go about developing the next generation of easy-to-use-and-access educational resources against the backdrop of this landscape, and it promises to give attendees a lot to consider.