Joseph Henry Press

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Joseph Henry Press is an American publisher which is an imprint of the National Academies Press, publisher for the United States National Academy of Sciences. The imprint is named after American scientist Joseph Henry.

Joseph Henry Press publishes books on science, technology, and health for the science-interested general public. JHP books represent a broad range of topics, from modern physics and frontiers of medicine to scientific biography and early childhood development.

The imprint has been a leader in dissemination of electronic texts, with their front- and backlists of titles available online since 1996. According to a 1999 article in Publishers Weekly, NAP reported about $10 million a year in revenues, about half from book sales and half from providing publishing, printing and Web services to its institution and to academic and university presses.

NAP/JHP Executive Director Barbara Kline Pope has written a widely-cited article on NAP's successes in The Journal of Electronic Publishing (June, 1999 Volume 4, Issue 4 ISSN 1080-2711). In it, she tells why the National Academy Press decided to give away its content, how it retained its intellectual property, what happened, and why she thinks others might do the same.