Australian Academic Press 3.3

Australian Academic Press was founded by psychologist Stephen May in 1987. With undergraduate training in the fields of psychology and vertebrate biology and postgraduate study in both psychology and neuroanatomy, Stephen left university to establish Australian Academic Press as an independent publishing house servicing both the behavioural and social sciences.

The Brisbane-based company quickly gained a reputation for quality and innovation, working with some of the country’s leading academics, researchers, and scholarly and professional societies. Two major publishing arms were established within the company, one to pursue scientific journal publishing, the other to focus on evidence-based treatment guides and resources for mental health clinicians.

With a firm focus on taking Australian research global the press released in 1998 the Griffith University developed FRIENDS anxiety prevention program, now recognised as the world’s leading school-based intervention for childhood anxiety with translations and adaptations in schools across Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the UK, Germany, Finland, and the Netherlands. A stable of locally edited scientific journals was established and distributed worldwide in both print and digital formats.

In February 2012 Stephen split the company and sold the journals division to Cambridge University Press to allow him to concentrate on specialist book publishing. AAP continues to publish a selective range of practitioner resources and books in print and digital formats for wholesale distribution across Australia, Europe and North America as well as retailing through the www.aapbooks.com webstore.