About the ISTC

Who we are

The Institute of Scientific and Technical Communicators (ISTC) is the largest UK body representing information development professionals.

For more information on how the ISTC is run, see: ISTC Council.

Our purpose

The ISTC exists to promote better scientific and technical communication by:

• Sharing best practices and standards
• Encouraging professional development
• Providing research resources
• Providing networking opportunities for its members and industry affiliates
• Promoting technical communication as a profession
• Continuing Professional Development (CPD)

A brief history of the ISTC

The ISTC is the oldest society of its kind in the world, tracing its roots back to 1948. It is the result of the amalgamation in 1972 of three organisations:

1. The Presentation of Technical Information (PTI) Group
   The PTI Group was founded by Professor Reginald Otto Kapp in 1948. It concentrated mainly on academic aspects of technical writing.
2. The Technical Publications Associations (TPA)
   The TPA was formed in around 1953 to 1955. In 1968, it changed its name to the Institute of Technical Authors and Illustrators (ITAI).
3. The Institute of Technical Publicity and Publications (ITPP)
   The ITPP was formed in 1964 and one of the founding members was Major Horace Hockley, a leading figure in the history of the ISTC and its first President.

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Current and past ISTC presidents

2000 onwards

2025 to present: James Bartley
2021 – 2025: Linda Robins
2017 – 2020: Carol Leahy
2014 – 2017: Alison Peck
2010 – 2014: Paul Ballard
2007 – 2010: Simon Butler
2002 – 2007: Gavin Ireland
2000 – 2002: Iain Wright

1990 – 2000

1998 – 2000: Anke Harris
1996 – 1998: Gerry Gentle
1995 – 1996: Dave Griffiths
1993 – 1995: Peter Greenfield
1991 – 1993: Ray Green

1980 – 1990

1988 – 1991: Dennis Reeder
1985 – 1988: Ray Burgess
1982 – 1985: Ted (E N) White
1980 – 1982: J D McIntosh

1970 – 1980

1978 – 1980: Allen Finch
1976 – 1978: Graham (R G) Martyr
1972 – 1976: Major Horace Hockley

Pioneering technical communication

Over the years, the ISTC has been something of a pioneer among technical communication organisations:

• In 1948, the PTI Group was the first professional organisation for technical communicators.
• In 1963, the TPA Newsletter was probably the first periodical published by an association for technical communicators.
• In 1964, the TPA awarded the first prize in the ISTC’s history — possibly in the history of technical communication — to the best student in the Final City and Guilds Examinations.
• In the late 1960s, one of the ISTC’s constituent associations carried out a salary survey that was probably the first in technical communication.
• ISTC members have often been ahead of their time: in 1974, a suggestion was minuted that support documentation should become a ‘provided item’, for which the manufacturer would make a charge (and profit) so that industry might become ‘communication-motivated’.
• From 1996 to 1999, the ISTC participated in a project to produce National Occupational Standards for technical communication, once again a first in the field.
• In 2000, the ISTC joined tekom in setting up TCeurope, an umbrella organisation for technical communication in Europe.

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Documenting the history of the ISTC

“A serious professional society without a sense of its history is only half a society.” (Robert Beck, FISTC)

Various attempts have been made to document the history of the ISTC.
In the 1980s, F. A. Sowan started to document the beginnings of the organisation, and his achievement, although it was not published at the time, forms an important part of the current ISTC history.

In the 1990s, Cyril Windust took on the task of documenting the history in time for the 1998 annual ISTC conference and his efforts led to a series of articles in Communicator during 1997 to 1998. Like the efforts of F A Sowan, his results form an important part of the current ISTC history.

In 2005, the idea resurfaced once more to produce a history of the ISTC. The result includes an historic account of the ISTC, from the establishment of the PTI Group in 1948 to recent achievements such as the ISTC’s Open Learning Course.
Producing a history of the ISTC is a long-held ambition that has been realised over a period of several decades, with the help of people both inside and outside the ISTC.

Read the full historic account of the ISTC (PDF).