Newswise — College Park, MD, September 12, 2014 – At a dinner ceremony last night in London, the Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers (ALPSP) honored H. Frederick Dylla, Executive Director and CEO of the American Institute of Physics, for his work advancing scholarly publishing and enhancing public access to research results.

In recognizing Dylla, the ALPSP Council cited "his efforts to develop and implement creative solutions for broadening access to scholarly publications."

"This award enables ALPSP to recognize individuals who have shown great commitment and support for the industry," said Audrey McCulloch, Chief Executive of ALPSP. "It is a pleasure to see the Council make this award to Fred."

The ceremony was held at the Park Inn Hotel and Conference Centre in London as part of the annual conference of the ALPSP, an international trade association for scholarly and professional publishers, with more than 300 members in 40 countries publishing more than 10,000 journals.

Dylla noted that progress in public access has been a product of intense collaboration among all the stakeholders in scholarly publishing, and it is vitally important to continue to chart paths forward that take all their viewpoints into account.

"It is very gratifying to receive this award for helping to define our new era," Dylla said. "Anyone involved in scholarly publishing today can see how much it is changing, but what may not be so obvious to people outside the enterprise is how much work our community is doing to increase public access."

"Public access is attainable, and publishers are essential partners in advancing it," he added. "From publishers to lawmakers to librarians to researchers, we’re all in this together."

First appointed Executive Director and CEO of the American Institute of Physics in 2007, Dylla has worked to build consensus among stakeholders to advance public access in a way that recognizes and sustains the value that publishers bring to science and scholarship. In 2009, Dylla helped organize the Scholarly Publishing Roundtable, which informed the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010 and subsequently provided guidance for U.S. funding agencies in the development of public access policies. In 2010, he proposed to CrossRef the FundRef project, and in 2011-13, he helped organize a number of publisher-funding agency collaborations that laid the groundwork for the Clearinghouse for the Open Research of the United States (CHORUS).

Next month, an international collaboration of six scholarly medical publishers, the Professional/Scholarly Publishing (PSP) Division of the Association of American Publishers (AAP), the International Association of Scientific, Technical & Medical Publishers (STM), and the Copyright Clearance Center will debut PatientACCESS, a pilot program that gives patients and caregivers access to relevant published medical research upon publication. Dylla, a member of the PSP Executive Council and STM Board, helped propose PatientACCESS and build the international collaboration that is bringing the pilot program to fruition.

ABOUT H. FREDERICK DYLLAFred Dylla is the Executive Director and CEO of the American Institute of Physics, a federation of 10 scientific societies and provider of physics outreach resources, and serves on the Board of AIP Publishing LLC, a wholly owned AIP subsidiary that carries out the Institute's scholarly publishing mission. Dylla has worked closely with colleagues in the publishing and librarian communities and in the federal government to implement public access projects that protect scientific integrity and the scholarly publishing enterprise. With more than 30 years of experience as a practicing scientist, Dylla is a strong advocate for the physical sciences and their fundamental contributions to society. He received his PhD in physics from MIT, is a Past President and Fellow of the AVS, and is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

ABOUT ALPSPALPSP is the international trade body which supports and represents not-for-profit organizations and institutions that publish scholarly and professional content around the world. ALPSP has more than 320 members in 39 countries, who collectively publish around half the world’s journals, as well as books, databases and other products. ALPSP’s mission is to connect, inform, develop and represent the scholarly and professional publishing community and to be an advocate on behalf of the not-for-profit publishing sector. www.alpsp.org

ABOUT AIPThe American Institute of Physics is a federation of scientific societies in the physical sciences, representing scientists, engineers, and educators. AIP offers authoritative information, services, and expertise in physics education and student programs, science communication, government relations, career services for science and engineering professionals, statistical research in physics employment and education, industrial outreach, and the history of physics and allied fields. AIP publishes Physics Today, the most influential and closely followed magazine of the physics community, and is also home to the Society of Physics Students and the Niels Bohr Library and Archives. AIP owns AIP Publishing LLC, a scholarly publisher in the physical and related sciences. www.aip.org

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