National Academies Press

The National Academies Press (NAP) was created to publish the reports issued by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, the National Academy of Engineering, the Institute of Medicine, and the National Research Council. It publishes nearly 200 books a year on a wide range of topics in the sciences. The NAP's stated mission is seemingly self-contradictory: to disseminate as widely as possible the works of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, and to be financially self-sustaining through sales. This mission has led to great experimentation in openness regarding online publishing.

The National Academy Press (as it was known in 1993) was the first self-sustaining publisher to make its material available on the Web, for free, in an open access model. By 1997, 1000 reports were available as sequential page images (starting with i, then ii, then iii, then iv...), with a minimal navigational envelope. Their experience up to 1998 was already indicating that open access led to increased sales, at least with page images as the final viewable object.

The National

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National academy

A national academy is an organizational body, usually operating with state financial support and approval, that co-ordinates scholarly research activities and standards for academic disciplines, most frequently in the sciences but also the humanities. Typically the country's learned societies in individual disciplines will liaise with or be co-ordinated by the national academy. National academies play an important organizational role in academic exchanges and collaborations between countries.

The extent of official recognition of national academies varies between countries. In some cases they are explicitly or de facto an arm of government; in others, as in the United Kingdom, they are voluntary, non-profit bodies with which government has agreed to negotiate, and which may receive government financial support while retaining substantial independence. In the countries of the former Soviet Union, and in the People's Republic of China, the national academies have considerable power over policy and personnel in their areas. There is however a growing consensus among international federations of learned academies that bona fide national (or learned) academies need to adhere to certain criteria:

National Academy of Sciences

The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a private non-profit organization in the United States. The National Academy of Sciences is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, which also includes the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), the National Academy of Medicine and the National Research Council.

As a national academy, new members of the organization are elected annually by current members, based on their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research. Election to the National Academy is one of the highest honors in U.S. science. Members serve pro bono as "advisers to the nation" on science, engineering, and medicine. The group holds a congressional charter under Title 36 of the United States Code.

Founded in 1863 as a result of an Act of Congress that was approved by Abraham Lincoln, the NAS is charged with providing independent, objective advice to the nation on matters related to science and technology. … to provide scientific advice to the government "whenever called upon" by any government department. The Academy receives no compensation from the government for its services.

Academy of sciences

An academy of sciences is a national academy or another learned society dedicated to sciences.

In non-English speaking countries, the range of academic fields of the members of a national Academy of Science often includes scholarly disciplines which would not normally be classed as "science" in English. Many languages use a broad term for systematized learning which includes both natural and social sciences and fields such as literary studies, history, or art history, which are not typically considered "sciences" in English. For example, the Australian Academy of Sciences is an organization of natural scientists, reflecting the English use of the term "scientist". There are separate academies for Arts, Humanities and Social Science. The Hungarian "Academy of Science" (Magyar Tudományos Akadémia), however, has members from many other areas of academia. Presumably, the Hungarian term tudomány has been translated as "science" in a broader sense, as it was used in English 200 years ago, and is still used in French and other languages.