Australian Academic Press was founded by psychologist Stephen May in 1987 as an independent publishing house servicing 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. Both had a firm commitment to take Australian research onto the global stage.
In 1998 the Griffith University developed FRIENDS anxiety prevention program was published, recognised at the time 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 highly successful peer-reviewed scientific journals was also established and distributed worldwide in both print and digital formats.
In February 2012, having published 28 peer-reviewed journal titles over 24 years Stephen split the company and sold the majority journals division to Cambridge University Press to allow him to concentrate on a smaller more specialised book publishing list. AAP continues to publish a selective range of practitioner resources and books in print and digital formats for global distribution and sales.
  

Publisher, Editor-in-Chief, and Owner

Stephen May BSc (Hons) Psychology
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Stephen has over 37 years experience in the publishing industry as well as 7 years tertiary training in the fields of psychology and vertebrate biology. He was a registered psychologist for 25 years who graduated from the University of Queensland in 1984 and went on to pursue postgraduate study in both psychology and neuroanatomy before establishing his own scientific publishing company in 1987. 
 
He is a past President of the Australian Publisher’s Association (APA), the peak industry body for Australian book publishers, and a founding member of the Australian chapter of the UK-based Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers (ALPSP) and a former Editorial Board member of Learned Publishing, the journal of the ALPSP. In 2017 Stephen was a proud recipient of the George Robertson Award for service to the publishing industry.
 
Throughout his career, Stephen has participated in various scholarly and publishing conferences, workshops and forums and personally edited an extensive range of scientific and professional texts and written professionally for both magazines and newspapers, including ghost-writing over 50 newspaper columns for a leading clinical psychologist. He is also co-author of the book Deadly Healthcare. He has provided publishing consultancy services to authors, editors, professional associations and publishers such as Cambridge University Press and also presented at scientific conferences both locally and overseas on the use of psychological publishing for the prevention of child anxiety disorder. He remains highly enthusiastic about psychology and working with psychologists to promote the advancement of the profession and its application to everyday life.

Editor

Dr Linda May BA (Hons, Psychology), BSc (Hons, Physiology), PhD (Neuroscience)


ASSOCIATES

Design and Production

Luke Harris, Working Type Studio


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