Twenty years of Learned Publishing

Before the appearance of Learned Publishing, the Association distributed a house journal, the ALPSP Bulletin. This was first published in 1975, consisted of seven A4 sheets giving details of the Association and largely dealt with Association business. It was edited for twenty-one issues by Leon Morelli, of the Institution of Civil Engineers, before Kurt Paulus (Institute of Physics) took over in 1977 to produce the Bulletin as an A5 booklet, issued quarterly. The bulk of the content was written by Kurt Paulus and the Secretary, Bob Millson, although there were occasional articles. In September 1980, for example, Malcolm Clarke and Martin Beavis of the Institute of Physics discussed the discount granted to journal subscription agents and the arguments advanced by agents to justify them. They concluded that libraries benefited more than publishers and urged journal producers to keep a very sharp eye on the practice. As part of a drive to encourage co-operation between learned society publishers, ALPSP had set up a Publications Centre in 1977 to provide practical help for its members and alongside the Clarke and Beavis article just mentioned was an account by Michele Benjamin, then Journal Manager of the British Psychological Society, of her experiences of the work of the Centre in handling her publications. She was enthusiastic, for the operation was financially rewarding. Many societies now Twenty years of Learned Publishing 7