Academic & Professional

Welcome to academic & professional publishing

The UK is home to a world-class academic and scholarly publishing industry and a vigorous and innovative industry devoted to enhancing learner experiences. Here we will keep you alerted to the issues that will define the marketplace of the future.

The Academic & Professional Division (APD) works for a healthy marketplace: in higher education, the professions and among scholars. We address the challenges of managing and marketing IPR in the emerging digital landscape.

We campaign for the value of textbooks and the publishers' role in effective scholarly communication. We commission and track research into the ecology and dynamics of publishing markets. We generate guidance and advice, convene fora for debate, respond to consultations, and engage in the public debates that surround the copyright industries around the balance between the legitimate interests of rightholders and societal needs for access.

Hot topics

• Open Access - PA challenges JISC on OA technology:  this link breaks down a long-running exchange on the assumptions underlying OA.       Open Access to scholarly journals - a status report gives a brief summary of the key OA issues  
• Peer review -  PA submission to Science & Technology Committee inquiry: read how publishers facilitate expert peer review, which remains the enduring favoured approach for improving journal content prior to publication.  
• Copyright - click here for PA responses to government and European Commission consultations, including After Gowers
  
• Transitions in Scholarly Communications - the PA and other participants are working in a new collaboration towards significantly enhanced access to research, with a portfolio of three research projects - Transitions to e-only publication; Gaps in access; and Dynamics of improving access to research papers.
• PEER project - APD is supporting the Publishing and the Ecology of European Research project which could become the most comprehensive observatory on the impact of self-archiving yet attempted.  It should bring adversaries closer and generate primary evidence on the impact of green OA.   
• Docdel - Document delivery services offered to readers by libraries have often caused disputes with publishers.  The PA is continuing contact with the British Library and others to ensure no perceived loopholes in the law are exploited.   Click through to our policy table for more. 
• Orphan works - the clause in the Digital Economy Bill proposing a legislative solution for the licensing of orphan works was dropped during the pre-election wash-up.  The EU-funded ARROW project, however, is piloting a way to exchange rights information and create clearing mechanisms for orphan and out of print works; the PA believes it should be critical to any orphan works solution .  Click here for why ARROW matters to publishers.
• Legal deposit - the challenge for publishing is appropriate access rather than preservation.  Click through to our policy table for more.