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University press

A university press is an academic publishing house specializing in monographs and scholarly journals. They are often an integral component of a large research university. They publish work that has been reviewed by scholars in the field.[2] They produce mainly academic works but also often have trade books for a lay audience. These trade books also get peer reviewed.[2] Many but not all university presses are nonprofit organizations, including the 160 members of the Association of University Presses.[3]

Because scholarly books are mostly unprofitable, university presses may also publish textbooks and reference works, which tend to have larger audiences and sell more copies. Most university presses operate at a loss and are subsidized by their owners; others are required to break even.[4] Demand has fallen as library budgets are cut and the online sales of used books undercut the new book market. Many presses are experimenting with electronic publishing.[5]

Recent developments[edit]

Financial pressures[edit]

Financially, university presses have come under growing pressure. Only a few presses, such as Oxford, Harvard, Princeton, and Yale have endowments; the others depend upon sales, fundraising, and subventions (subsidies) from their sponsoring institutions. Subsidies vary but typically range from $150,000 to $500,000.[23] Because the subsidies are often not indexed to inflation, university press operating budgets can face a functional squeeze as inflation chips away at the value of the subsidy. Operating models vary, but host universities generally cover fixed costs like labor and fixed assets, while looking to the press to cover variable costs from the sale of books and other revenue. Sales of academic books have been declining, however, especially as University libraries cut back their purchases. At Princeton University Press in the 1960s, a typical hardcover monograph would sell 1,660 copies in the five years after publication. By 1984, that average had declined to 1,003 and in after 2000 typical sales of monographs for all presses are below 500.[24] University libraries are under heavy pressure to purchase very expensive subscriptions to commercial science journals, even as their overall budgets are static. By 1997 scientific journals were thirty times more expensive than they were in 1970.[25]


In May 2012, the University of Missouri System announced that it would close the University of Missouri Press so that it might focus more efficiently on “strategic priorities.” Friends of the press from around the country rallied to its support, arguing that by publishing over 2,000 scholarly books the press made a major contribution to scholarship. A few months later the university reversed its decision.[26]


In 2014, Peter Berkery, the executive director of the Association of University Presses stated:

Library publishing

List of university presses

Abadía, Adolfo A. (2023). . Revista CS (40): 101–140. doi:10.18046/recs.i40.5858. eISSN 2665-4814. ISSN 2011-0324. S2CID 262165048.

"Co-authorship Networks and Scholarly Books: A Methodological Approach from a University Press Case Study"

Case, Mary, ed. The Specialized Scholarly Monograph in Crisis, Or, How Can I Get Tenure If You Won’t Publish My Book? (Washington: Association of Research Libraries, 1999)

Dalton, Margaret Stieg. "A system destabilized: scholarly books today." Journal of Scholarly Publishing (2006) 37#4 pp: 251–269.

online

Davidson, Cathy. "Understanding the Economic Burden of Scholarly Publishing," Chronicle of Higher Education (3 October 2003): B7–B10,

online

Davidson, Cathy. "The Futures of Scholarly Publishing," Journal of Scholarly Publishing (2004) 35#3 pp: 129–42

Hawes, Gene R. To Advance Knowledge: A Handbook on American University Press Publishing (New York: American University Press Services 1967)

Kerr, Chester. A Report on American University Presses (Washington: Association of American University Presses, 1949)

Le Roux, Elizabeth. A Social History of the University Presses in Apartheid South Africa: Between Complicity and Resistance (Leiden: Brill, 2015),  9789004293472

ISBN

Oliva, Kathia Salomé Ibacache, Javier Munoz-Diaz, Caitlin M. Berry, and Eric A. Vance. 2020. “Forgotten Hispano-American Literature: Representation of Hispano-American Presses in Academic Libraries.” College & Research Libraries 81 (6): 928–44.

Sherman, Scott. "University Presses Under Fire: How the Internet and slashed budgets have endangered one of higher education’s most important institutions," The Nation (May 26, 2014)

online

Thatcher, Sanford G. "From the University Presses--The Hidden Digital Revolution in Scholarly Publishing: POD, SRDP, the" Long Tail," and Open Access." Against the Grain 21.2 (2013): 33.

online

Thatcher, Sanford G. "The 'Value Added' in Editorial Acquisitions." Journal of Scholarly Publishing 30 (1999): 59-74.

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