The Association continues to collect and disseminate essential information on our sector of the scholarly communications industry. The Annual University Press Operating Statistics for 2019-2022 was completed and shared with participating presses and the member community in April 2023; and the longstanding Quarterly Sales Comparison reports have continued. These statistical programs are carried out by a confidential agent, analyst Kimberly Schmelzinger.
The Biennial Compensation Survey collected 2022 data from North American Regular members. Both the usual Compensation Survey Report and data tables, as well as a continuing (binary) gender parity analysis report, are expected in May 2023. Following through on the Board commitment to greater transparency in this data collection effort, Schmelzinger will also prepare a version of the data tables for distribution to the entire membership constituency, in addition to the data tables provided to press directors.
The Task Force on Career Progression launched in spring 2022 continues its collaborative work with the Society for Scholarly Publishing (SSP). The Association of Learned and Professional Scholarly Publishing (ALPSP) has also joined the effort in 2023. More than 1000 job descriptions have been collected from individuals and organizations—including a robust export from the AUPresses Jobs List—across the university press and global scholarly publishing communities. This corpus is being coded and analyzed to create a templated library of scholarly publishing positions, to identify needed skills, to liaise with higher education HR structures, and to plan targeted professional and career development programs and opportunities. You can read more about this work in a Scholarly Kitchen post written by AUPresses Task Force co-chairs Lisa Bayer (Georgia) and Charles Watkinson (Michigan).
Co-PIs John Sherer (North Carolina) and Erich Van Rijn (California), continued to lead work on the National Endowment for the Humanities grant awarded to AUPresses from the to study the impact of OA editions on print sales of scholarly books. The study team also includes staff representative Brenna McLaughlin and Ithaka S+R research consultants Laura Brown and Roger Schonfeld. Results from this study are expected in spring/summer 2023.