Academic Publishing in Europe: The Impact of Publishing

Professor Michael Mabe (CEO, International Association of STM Publishers) opened the Fourth International Conference on Academic Publishing in Europe (APE 2009) “The Impact of Publishing”. Professor Mabe highlighted that APE 2009 would examine the impact of publishing across institutions such as libraries and repositories, but also with regard to bibliometrics and usage statistics. Moreover, this focus would include the interaction between publishing, technology and new business models, including the Google book settlement. In a word of greeting Dr. Karl-Peter Winters (Member of the Board of the German Association of Publishers and Booksellers) welcomed all participants on behalf of the Börsenverein. In his opinion, the most important changes of the previous twelve months have been the introduction of Amazon’s Kindle, the Google book settlement and the Libreka book finder. These changes again highlighted the continuing impact of the electronic revolution on products, content and users. In this context, he noted that publishers must start rethinking and adjusting their efforts in fighting piracy and illegal sharing. Dr. Winters thanked the organizers and sponsors of APE 2009 and wished the participants interesting proceedings (the speech was read by Arnoud de Kemp). In his opening keynote, Professor Dr. Georg Winckler (President, European University Association; Rector, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria) spoke about Universities in the 21st Century. He stated that the university might currently seem like an institution without boundaries or core. Originally, the university had been a community of teachers and students devoted to learning. Later, the French Polytechnique and technical universities in general, introduced a utilitarian element, while the Humboldtian University focussed on research and the search for truth. The American research university dominating