The Publishers Association (PA)

The Publishers Association (PA) is acknowledged with scholarly communications to be the leading trade organisation serving book, journal, audio and electronic publishers in the UK. The PA’s mission is to strengthen the trading environment for UK publishers, by providing a strong voice for the industry in government, within society and with other stakeholders in the UK.

The Association also gives voice to publishers internationally – especially in Europe – while providing a forum for the exchange of non-competitive information between publishers. It also looks to provide support and guidance to the industry through technological and other changes. Their core service is representation and lobbying, around copyright, rights and other matters relevant to our members, who represent roughly 80 per cent of the industry by turnover. 

Their stated objectives are to represent the large majority of UK publishing by turnover, and promote the intellectual property agenda, leading the debate in digital and other arenas through working to ensure that IP laws are enforced. They proactively define policy positions in consultation, looking to deliver on them in the public affairs arena and with other relevant stakeholders. In this arena they seek to explain the value of UK publishing in economic, cultural, scientific, educational and social terms, strongly communicating the role of and value added by publishers in a changing environment. The PA guides and supports the industry through technological change, developing standards across the industry and throughout the supply chain where this will improve the sector’s competitiveness.

Internally, they have set up Councils and Divisions to ensure that the PA has services for every sector. These include an Academic and Professional Division, which provides a forum for higher education, scholarly and reference publishers, representing publishers’ contribution to key stakeholders. The Educational Publishers Council provides a voice for college and vocational publishers, campaigning for better funding for learning resources and representing the industry in the development of the market. The International Division supports the international sales activities of PA members, acting on copyright, trade barrier and piracy issues and organising UK representation at international trade fairs.

The PA was one of 14 organisations with a direct stake in effective scholarly communications to endorse Research and the Scholarly communications process: Towards strategic goals for public policy, the statement of principles document RIN published in 2007, which the Policy Centre is supporting.