Press Release - Launch of the ASSOCIATION of EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY PRESSES (AEUP)

["Okerson, Ann" <ann.okerson@yale.edu>]

Of possible interest. Ann

________________________________
From: Simon Bell [simon.bell@manchester.ac.uk]
Sent: Friday, October 15, 2010 12:12 PM

Launch of the ASSOCIATION of EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY PRESSES (AEUP)

Press Release - October 14, 2010

On October 7, 2010, the Association of European University 
Presses (AEUP) was officially launched at the Frankfurt Book 
Fair. AEUP is a network of scholarly presses from across Europe 
who are affiliated with a university or academic institution. 
AEUP aims to enhance the visibility of member presses and 
facilitate communication between them, to share knowledge and to 
strengthen their common mission to support scholarly publishing.

Eight University Presses acted as founding members of the AEUP, 
approving the by-laws and electing the first board of the 
Association (see below). A subsequent meeting open to interested 
University Presses was attended by more than 50 people, 
representing around 30 University Presses from more than 10 
countries.

Open meeting for university presses

Following an introduction by Eelco Ferwerda (Amsterdam University 
Press), Marike Schipper of Leuven University Press gave a keynote 
speech on "The value of University Press publishing and the need 
for the AEUP." Marike Schipper began by distinguishing university 
presses from other scholarly publishers, pointing to their formal 
relationship with academic institutes, a university, research 
institute or scholarly society and their primary function to 
disseminate academic knowledge. This implies that a peer review 
process is at the heart of university press publishing. 
University presses select publications based on their scholarly 
merits, not on their commercial potential, and it is their strong 
commitment to the academic community and the dissemination of 
scholarly knowledge which binds university presses together.

Marike Schipper went on to talk about the benefits of AEUP. The 
Association can help university presses to get to know each 
other, to share information and best practices and to enhance 
their presence in Europe. As a first step to achieve these goals, 
AEUP set up a website at <http://www.aeup.eu/>. The website will 
contain an online directory of member presses and a forum for 
members as a first tool to share knowledge about all aspects of 
scholarly publishing. We will also develop a "Best practices" 
wiki with contributions from member presses. Another goal of the 
Association is to help the outside world to get to know 
university presses and make sure their commitment to scholarly 
publishing is recognised by academic institutions, potential 
authors, readers and buyers. This may include shared stands at 
international book fairs (such as the stand for European 
University Presses at Frankfurt, representing approximately 30 
presses from Germany, France, Italy and Austria), joint promotion 
of publishing programmes and collaboration with large consortia 
and service providers.

The full text of the keynote speech can be found at 
<http://www.aeup.eu/> under "About the AEUP."

After the keynote speech, Peter Givler, director of the 
Association of American University Presses (AAUP) responded to 
Marike's talk with information about the way university presses 
operate in the USA and gave various examples of how members 
benifit from the AAUP. Following Peter Givler's talk Linda 
Cameron, director of The University of Alberta Press and 
president of the Association of Canadian University Presses 
(ACUP) talked about the value of their association in Canada.

Membership

The AEUP hopes that many university presses from across Europe 
will join the association in the coming months. The AEUP accepts 
full members and associate members. Both types of members are 
required to submit an application form to the Board of the AEUP 
for approval. In both cases publications must be subject to peer 
review. Full members need to be formally connected to an academic 
institute and associate members are required to have an 
established relationship with an academic institute. Membership 
fees range from 100 euro for small presses to 350 euro for large 
presses. More detailed information about Fees, the Application 
procedure, the Application form and the By-laws can be found on 
the website.

Board of the AEUP

The first board of the AEUP consists of the following members:

Eelco Ferwerda (Amsterdam University Press, the Netherlands) 
- President

Marike Schipper (Leuven University Press, Belgium) 
- Vice-President

Regine Tobias (KIT Scientific Publishers, Germany) - Secretary

Denise Pierrot (ENS Editions, France) - Treasurer

Andrew Peden Smith (Northumbria University Press, UK) - Executive 
member

Emmanuelle Corne (Fondation Maison Sciences de l'Homme, France) - 
Executive member

Ros Webb (Nottingham University Press, UK)

Yvonne Twisk (Leiden University Press)

***

Founding members of the AEUP:

Amsterdam University Press, the Netherlands
ENS Editions, France
KIT Scientific Publishers, Germany
Leuven University Press, Belgium
Northumbria University Press, United Kingdom
Nottingham University Press, United Kingdom
Fondation Maison Sciences de l'Homme, France
Leiden University Press, the Netherlands

AEUP is supported and hosted by Fondation Maison des Sciences de 
l'Homme, Paris, and Northumbria University Press, Newcastle.

Contact details:
Association of European University Presses (AEUP)
Emmanuelle Corne
info@aeup.eu
Fondation Maison des Sciences de l'Homme
54 bd Raspail
75006 Paris, France

For more information, please visit our website at 
<http://www.aeup.eu/> or contact Eelco Ferwerda, 
e.ferwerda@aup.nl, +31(0)20 420 0050