AAPG has been in the book publishing business since the 1920s, starting with "special publications" and "special volumes." Memoirs replaced the special volumes in the 1960s, and other series have been added through time.
Today, AAPG publishes Memoirs, Studies in Geology, Methods in Exploration and Hedberg and Archie series. In addition to special publications, AAPG also offers digital products. Increasingly, publications are a combination of both print and digital media to reduce costs and exploit the flexible platform of digital publishing.
AAPG's publishing mission is to provide members, other geoscientists and in some cases non-geologists with timely and useful publications at the lowest possible cost.
The Publications Committee is headed by William DeMis, of Marathon Oil, and elected AAPG Editor Ernest Mancini of the University of Alabama.
The publishing process is a simple one:
- A formal proposal is submitted to the geosciences director, who forwards it to the chair for evaluation.
- The Publication Committee, in the evaluation process, focuses on scientific merit, timeliness and value to the AAPG membership.
- The Publications Committee recommends changes, and forwards these to the committee chair and the elected editor.
- The elected editor makes the final decision and sends out an approval letter, and the book process is under way.
Complete, final manuscripts are due at AAPG headquarters within 12 months after proposal acceptance. Once received at HQ, the production process begins and generally takes 15-18 months from start to printed product.
The Publications Committee and AAPG staff produced 16 print publications in the 2002-03 and 2003-04 years combined, in addition to various digital products. Two print publications have been released so far in 2005-06, and another six print publications are scheduled for release before the end of this year.
The Publications Committee welcomes new book proposals, and can act quickly on submittals.
Publication proposal guidelines are available online at http://www.aapg.org /pubs/pubs_proposal.cfm.