APPI Explores Joint Projects With Chinese Publisher

American Psychiatric Publishing Inc. (APPI), APA's publishing division, has entered into a “strategic alliance” with the People's Medical Publishing House (PMPH). While the alliance does not commit either party to any specific project, it provides an outline for selecting future publishing projects.

The alliance was formalized in August at the Beijing International Book Fair in a ceremony that included government officials from the Ministry of Health and the Government Administration for Publishing and Printing (GAPP). Representing APPI were its president, Alan Schatzberg, M.D., and CEO, Ron McMillen.

“By entering into a strategic alliance with the People's Medical Publishing House,” Schatzberg said, “APPI now has an important new partner in the effort to improve mental health care, education, training, and resources for mental health care professionals in China, in the United States, and throughout the world.”

APPI's agreement with PMPH is similar to one signed by Elsevier Publishing at the Frankfurt Book Fair in October 2006.

Following the ceremony, Schatzberg met with psychiatrists from the Beijing Psychiatric Hospital and Shanghai Mental Health Center to discuss future publishing projects. That meeting was also attended by editorial and management staff from APPI and PMPH. The discussion centered on current APPI books that could be translated into Mandarin.

The first project PMPH will undertake is the translation of the APPI Textbook of Clinical Psychiatry, Fifth Edition, edited by Robert E. Hales, M.D. As the Chinese psychiatrists work on the translation, they will prepare supplemental information that will discuss treatment adaptations for use with Chinese patients. After review by both sides, the supplementary material will be incorporated in the Chinese edition and made available in English on APPI's Web site. When APPI's sixth edition of the textbook is prepared, the Chinese material will be included where appropriate.

Both publishers agreed to select psychiatrists to serve on a China-U.S. editorial board to guide future projects. Selections of editorial board members will be made and finalized at a meeting of APPI and PMPH at the Frankfurt Book Fair this month.

PMPH is the largest medical publishing house in China, publishing 1,500 titles each year. PMPH was founded in 1953 under the Ministry of Health. Although privatized in 2000, it still receives general approval for its operations from the government. The Chinese government has set health and education as its highest priority for the five-year plan beginning in 2003. One major strategy is to bring in more Western medicine publications to China and to facilitate the publication of Chinese science in English. ▪