About The APS Press
The American Philosophical Society (APS) is the oldest learned society in the United States, founded in 1743 by Benjamin Franklin for the purpose of “promoting useful knowledge.” In keeping with Franklin’s vision, the APS is currently relaunching its publishing program, producing a new portfolio of publications that will promote and explore the dynamics of “useful knowledge” in today’s multidisciplinary context. The APS has a rich backlist of more than 1,000 books, including many landmark works. The APS also publishes two distinguished journals, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society and Transactions of the American Philosophical Society.
APS Books
The APS Press publishes scholarly books across the disciplines. The inaugural APS Press list to be distributed by Penn Press will commence in 2024. Published under the APS Books imprint, these titles will include a combination of new books and classic reprints from the APS backlist, as well as updated editions of the APS Yearbook. They will appear in the forthcoming Launch Catalog and in future notifications, both online and in print.
See all titles currently available from The APS Press on pennpress.org ❯
APS Journals
The relaunched APS journals programs will update the Society’s two venerable journals, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society and Transactions of the American Philosophical Society.
Proceedings, first published in 1838, is a quarterly journal that includes papers read at the APS’s biannual Member Meetings, biographical memoirs of APS Members, and occasional peer-reviewed articles by prominent professionals, scholars, and scientists. Future issues will include a new feature: field report essays from recipients of APS grants who have completed scholarly projects in the sciences and humanities.
Transactions is the oldest scholarly publication in North America, dating back to 1771 and covering various fields of study, ranging from 18th-century American history to the history of science, to various topics in the humanities and scholarly practice. Transactions, which had been publishing a combination of edited issues and monographs, will be moving to a quarterly, all-thematic issue format beginning in 2024. The journal will draw its content from papers given at APS conferences and workshops, as well as a new annual “Useful Knowledge” issue selected from the APS blog, with plans for possible issues drawn from thematically organized grantees’ field reports, similar to those scheduled to appear in Proceedings.
Penn Press & The APS Press
As of July 1, 2023, the APS and Penn Press joined forces to distribute and market the books and journals published by the APS. Both the APS and Penn Press’s home university are products of Benjamin Franklin’s fertile imagination, and this new partnership brings together the distinctive strengths of two pillars of Philadelphia’s intellectual landscape.
In this new partnership, Penn Press will provide the APS with distribution, publicity, marketing, sales, rights representation, and other publishing services that will give APS Press books and journals—and their authors—unprecedented access to readers via online merchants and bookstores, through exhibits at academic meetings, domestic and international sales representation, and subsidiary rights agency for translation in languages around the world. In keeping with the recent practice among the major university presses, the APS Press books backlist will be digitized and made available to libraries, suppliers, and booksellers in print-on-demand and e-book formats all over the world. The APS Press’s two distinguished journals, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society and Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, will be published as a part of Penn Press’s robust journals program.
Learn more about the APS Press/Penn Press partnership in our handy Guide! And keep an eye out for the forthcoming APS Press Launch Catalog!
Contact Us
Allison Cadle, Associate Editor
acadle@amphilsoc.org
David Carpenter, Editorial Administrator
dcarpenter@amphilsoc.org
Peter J. Dougherty, Director
pdougherty@amphilsoc.org
Laura Spero, Managing Editor of Proceedings
lspero@amphilsoc.com
Kate Tyler Wall, Managing Editor of Transactions and APS Books
ktylerwall@amphilsoc.com