London Book Fair - It's academic

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Jacks Thomas, director of London Book Fair, previews this year's event

Three years ago The London Book Fair enhanced the Academic Zone, a dedicated academic publishing space within the exhibition. For us, this was an entirely logical move, given that 29 per cent of our visitors either work or have an interest in developments in scholarly, STM and professional publishing. 

Year-on-year, the growth of our academic publishing offering has become a clear statement of our intent to attract exhibitors and visitors from across the scholarly publishing community to attend, participate, debate and do business at the fair. Working in partnership with ALPSP, the PA and CCC, programming for the show floor theatre – The Faculty – launched three years ago, and this is now one of the must-attend destinations in the book fair.

As LBF 2016 fast approaches, we are delighted that academic publishing has become such an integral part of the programme and, equally, that the fair is fast becoming a major focal point in the academic publishing calendar. 

In this, our 45th anniversary year, we are looking forward to welcoming more academic publishers, librarians and researchers than ever before and are extremely excited to present a comprehensive conference line-up and a rich and varied programme of unmissable, thought-provoking debate. If you haven’t been to The London Book Fair before, I would highly recommend it. To whet your appetite, here are just a few highlights:

12 April 2016, 09:30 – 14:00

The Research and Scholarly Forum 

Access All Areas: Global Trends in Research and Scholarly Publishing

The London Book Fair’s dedicated half-day scholarly publishing conference is back for its second year, this time as part of the 31st International Publishers Congress. Curated by the Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers (ALPSP) and the Publishers Association (The PA) and sponsored by the Copyright Clearance Center, the comprehensive four session programme will examine the trends and challenges facing research communication. This year, the programme will include high-profile speakers such as Stephen Barr, SAGE International, Sally Hardy, Regional Studies Association, and Andrew Tein, Wiley. 

12 April – 14 April 2016

The Faculty @ LBF

Launched in 2014, The Faculty @ LBF is the main hub where the academic community convenes to share and discuss issues relevant to the sector. Throughout the duration of the fair, The Faculty plays host to a comprehensive back-to-back programme of events, curated once again by our partners at ALPSP, and sponsored by Publishing Technology. From our inaugural Ask the Chefs Live session, in partnership with Scholarly Kitchen, to discussions around the latest developments in open access, and from talks on trends in journal publishing to panel debates on discoverability, this year’s programme promises to be educational and insightful. The programme includes: 

Day one - 12 April 2016

10:00-11:00 User-centric design in platform development: A journey of discovery

13:00-14:00 Crossover Books: A panel debate

14:30-15:30 Platform Wars: The scholarly journal in a changing world

Day two -13 April 2016

11:30-12:30 What is a Publisher Now? Yes it’s open; but where on Earth is it?

16:00-17:00 The Making of a Modern UP: Launch lessons from Goldsmiths Press

17:30-18:30 SSP Scholarly Kitchen: Ask the Chefs. Topics in scholarly publishing

Day three – 14 April 2016

11:30-12:30 The Data Dilemma

13:00-14:00 Levelling the Playing Field: How smaller society publishers use technology to aim high

14:30-15:30 From Earthworms to Earthquakes: Driving public engagement with academic content. 

The London Book Fair 2016 takes place at Olympia, London, from Tuesday 12 April to Thursday 14 April 2016.